


Renaissance

by Lady_Pomegranate



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Angst, Gen, No Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, No character bashing, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Panic Attacks, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Temporary Character Death, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Trauma, Unreliable Narrator, but some will not be in a great light
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2019-10-24 08:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 56,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17700728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Pomegranate/pseuds/Lady_Pomegranate
Summary: All six stones shine eerily and turn their gazes towards him expectantly. He takes a deep breath and brings the gauntlet to his chest.“There was no other way.” Echos in his mind.Tony shook his head clearing his mind. Now was no time to mourn.Just another chance.He lifts his hand and snaps.Alternatively: Tony Stark, the last of the avengers alive, after defeating Thanos uses the infinity stones and ends up traveling back in time and wakes up in Malibu Mansion in the year 2008





	1. Breathe in the Dust

**Author's Note:**

> TW: panic attack,  
> start: '2008..?'  
> end: 'Guess this really was his mansion.'
> 
> Multiple characters die in the first chapter, all are temporary, none are graphic but some also are alluded to. Since it is time travel they will come back, just a warning.
> 
> I'm a sucker for time travel fics so I decided to write one my self. Infinity war left me in pain so I decided to fix it in a pretty painful way. Also this is so many words longer than expected.

Thanos was killed by a blow to the head from Captain America’s Shield.

Thanos was dead but they had already lost so much. It was almost comical how quickly thanos fell, he was powerful but the damaged gauntlet only allowed him to do so much with the stones. One had nearly exploded in Thanos’s own face when using it. Rendering a majority of the stones to Thanos, unusable. It didn’t feel like a victory when all the victors were dead.

Captain America was already close to death when he struck the titan down. When the blow had struck, it was only a matter of time until he succumbed to his wounds. His blow with his shield was a lucky shot in just the right spot with the power of a dying man. The lucky blow was enough to kill Thanos and the once invincible titan fell to the ground. Moments later, Captain America had collapsed to the ground. Shield falling with a audible thud.

Tony was a witness to this event. He was slumped up against a rock trying to recover from his wounds enough to help in the fight after he took a large blow that nearly killed him, but it seems like that was a lighter sentence than what Steve received. When the body of the titan fell, Tony rushed over to Steve’s dying form. He lifted up Steve’s torso off the ground to try and prevent him from choking on his own blood. The super soldier serum’s regenerative abilities weren’t enough to stop the damage that had been dealt. Wounds littered Steve’s body, a large gash ran down his chest with blood flowing freely from it. It’s already too late. In a desperate attempt he tries to seal the large gash, Steve’s hand weakly comes up and stops him. Steve looked at him with glazed over eyes. Blood dribbles out of his mouth, his face has smeared smudges of blood. Tony pulls his hand back down to hold his head up. Steve brings his hand back down. 

“I..” Steve attempts to speak, he can only get a single letter out before horid cough start racking his body. Blood runs down his chin after his body tries to expel the blood from his lungs. It’s an effort just to breath for Steve. “Tony.”

“Steve, don’t talk.” Tony tries to hush him knowing that it would do nothing. 

“I’m sorry.” Steve tries to say something more after saying that, but all that comes out was gurgling. 

Then he lets go.

His eyes rolled backward into his body and his body fell limp. The man who said ‘he could do this all day’ had given up and let go.

Steve dies in his arms.

Steve’s eyes were open when he died. Tony placed his hand over Steve’s eyes and closed them. Tony allows himself a moment to mourn. He places Steve’s body carefully on the ground. He checks his pulse, no beat. He sits next to Steve’s body looking at the area around him. Natasha’s body lays only a few meters away from him. Her skull caved in from being bashed on a rock by Thanos. Her blond hair swaying slightly. In the opposite direction, even farther away lied Thor. Also dead, killed by Thanos. His head nearly ripped from his own body in a gruesome death.

He was the last one alive. Just like his nightmares. Yay. Out of everyone in his team, he probably was the one most prepared to die. Yet the universe isn’t just like that. The ones who wanted and had a reason to live, died, and him, who was ready to die after losing everyone, lived. People with their whole lives ahead of him, died, while here his alive. The last one alive of his team while he was surrounded by the corpses of his friends. Why him? Why was he alive? So many more people were deserving of his life? Why had strange traded him for the stone? Billions had died from the snap and millions more perished from the result of that. The millions that died not directly to the snap were gone forever and never to return.

Tony slowly get up and moves away from Steve’s body. He walks over to Thanos. His body lies on the ground and his armor shines from the rising sun. His head is bashed in and stormbreaker was lodged in his chest. The titans eyes are wide open but lifeless. On his left hand was the damaged gauntlet with the 6 stones shining on them. Tony pulls it off with little effort probably because he’s dead. He lifts it up to his face and holds it up to the rising sun. The sunlight glitters and shines off of the non-damaged golden parts.

“Steve, this was supposed to be your job.” He grumbles to no one. He looks at the six stones that reflect the light in them and glows ominously. “I doubt this will work.”

He takes a deep breath. He wasn’t the original one planned to wield the gauntlet, it was supposed to be Thor, if he died, Steve. After that Bruce... but... He never thought that it would come down to him having to wield the infinity stones. It was unlikely he even would be able to survive the putting on the gauntlet.

“Here goes nothing.” He rams the gauntlet onto his hand with no hesitation. The glove is much larger than his own so it nearly hangs off of his arm. He stares at it waiting for something to happen.

“You know, I expected something to happen-”

All of a sudden the world turn into a cacophony of colors and pain. Light surges through his limbs in an array of colors. Pain rips through his body and he collapses to the ground letting out a strangled scream clutching his chest with the gauntlet. Everything is too much. Sounds whip around and millions of voices call him in every direction. Light flashes past his eyes quicker than he can register. Power seems to race through him and everything feels like it’s too much.

And then.. It stops.

Everything comes to a subseeding halt. The pain ceases and the light dies out. He’s left there on the ground panting and recovering from the assault of lights and colors. His chest heaves with exertion and sweat drips down his neck. The air is still and everything is just…. still. On the ground he looks around. Everything seems to be frozen except for the wind. No sound is made expect for the whistle of the wind. The wind moves the hair of the dead. It’s a gruesome sight to see the wind softly move Steve and Natasha’s hair in the wind. The wind makes Steves hair that has been matted with blood flutter in the wind. The shine of the vibranium disc shaped shield caked in blood. All that he can smell on this planet is the rusted scent of blood. 

Taking a moment to recollect himself he notices the damaged gauntlet had shrunk to his hand. All 6 stones shine eerily and turn their gazes towards him expectantly. His body feels lighter and filled with more energy; he doesn't feel any exhaustion that was there just moments ago. He lifts his hand up to look at the golden gauntlet, marks are in the gauntlet due to how damaged it was. He stands up and looks up at the sunrise. 

He takes a deep breath and brings the gauntlet to his chest.

_What do you desire most? ___

___A chance for everyone lost in this battle to return. ____ _

____That’s all Tony wanted. Even if he was able to bring the dusted back, many would never return and it would take years for the world to recover. He had to fix this, he was the last one left after all._ _ _ _

____He looked to the fallen body of Thanos. Blood had stopped flowing from where stormbreaker was forced into his chest, but his body still shone red. Natasha, Steve and Thor were the last ones alive in this crusade against Thanos. His mind fled to rhodey, pepper, and happy. They had all died in the aftermath and none in the snap. Then to Peter who died in his arms begging not to go. The only one of the people he cared for who had dusted in the snap. He had to bring everyone back._ _ _ _

____“This was the only way.” Echoed in his mind._ _ _ _

____Tony shook his head clearing his mind. Now was no time for tears or to mourn._ _ _ _

_____Just another chance. ____ _ _ _

______He lifted his hand and snapped._ _ _ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _

______\------_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Good Morning.” A voice says pulling him from his unconscious state. Tony gets up confused and tries to blink out the dog in his mind. He's in a soft bed with white sheets. There's a fog in his mind as he tries and figures out were he is. Just moments ago he was on a another planet fighting Thanos._ _ _ _ _ _

______“It's 7 AM, the weather in Malibu is 76 degrees with scattered clouds.” Malibu? Why would Tony be here and not new York? The mansion blew up years ago. Where is he?_ _ _ _ _ _

______“The surfing conditions-” The voice continues. The windows become untinted and he is bathed in sunlight. The bright light assaults his unadjusted eyes and all he can see is the shimmering blue ocean. Wait he knows that voice, it’s so familiar, but it can’t be right. Jarvis? It’s unmistakably his voice. He never woke up Jarvis after it was fused to make Vison, it never felt right to have two Jarvises running around even if one wasn’t technically Jarvis._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Jarvis?” he croaks out interrupting the AI. The AI stops his morning diagnostics. Tony begins to look around more of his surrounding. Then a thought occurs to Tony. His breathing feels so easy. There’s no discomfort is his chest, no pressure, no problems with breathing. No pain from the wounds he had suffered mere moments ago. His heart begins to thunder and his breathing speeds up rapidly._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Yes sire?” Jarvis asks, his artificial voice pitching to show concern. “Are you alright, sir? Your heart rate and breathing are at abnormally high levels.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Tony doesn’t answer, instead his eyes look towards his hands. Calloused from work in the lab, but not scared from his superhero work. Questions flood his mind as he brings a hand up to his chest under his shirt. Cautiously he runs his hand over were the arc reactor scar should have been._ _ _ _ _ _

______There’s nothing there but smooth skin. No scars, no nothing._ _ _ _ _ _

______But How?_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Jarvis.” He says to the AI. He continues to look for other scars he knew were on his body._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Yes sire?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“What year is it?” Tingles spread through his hand leaving numbness behind._ _ _ _ _ _

______“2008.” Jarvis responds pausing before asking, “Is something wrong?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______2008..? That’s ten years ago. How can that be? It was 2018. Does that mean everything was a horrible nightmare only he lived? Was the battle of New York even real? Sokovia, the Accords? Thanos?_ _ _ _ _ _

______Panic began to spread throughout his body before enveloping and trapping him. He questioned every memory, every thought he had over the last ten years that supposedly didn’t exist. Did he go back in time? He thought of the timestone and Strange. Every breath he took caused the ragged breaths to turn into desperate gasps for air as his lungs threatens to collapse on him. He took multiple breaths to try and fill his lungs because it felt like breathing wasn’t enough air. He brought his hand up to clutch his chest when he folded in on himself. It was almost like a large weight was placed onto his chest as he struggled to breathe, each gaps was being choked off. His heart pounded in his ears with a deafening thump preventing him from hearing anything. He looked around rapidly trying to take in his surrounding but failed to do so. This isn't right. This wasn’t right._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Sir.” Jarvis said. Was it even Jarvis? He didn’t respond and was too focused on trying to force air into his lungs. “Sir, can you hear me?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Tony nods, aware that Jarvis will be able to see that._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Sire, I need you to breathe.”_ _ _ _ _ _

_______Breathe? Not gonna lie that's kinda hard to do right now. _still tries to breathe. It’s hard to try and force air into his lungs. He feels the haze in his mind begin to fall away and he’s starting to be able to think more properly.__ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Tony takes multiple deep breaths and the tension in his chest begins to uncoil. Slowly he get out of his bed to avoid getting up to quickly. His breathing and heart have slowed down and he panic is subsiding. Still he would be high strung for the next few days. He haphazardly pulled off his nightshirt and pulled a random shirt from his closet that he thought would be comfortable with a pair of grey sweatpants. He almost moved robotically and went through the motions with his muscle memory. He steps out of his room and into the living area of his mansion. He sets off to investigate more about his situation on hand. He looks around and takes in his surrounding._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Huh._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Guess this really was his mansion. Everything, give or take, was the same as it was ten years ago. The question was how? How was this possible. He begins to walk around aimlessly and thinks._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Hey, Jarvis?” He says to the walls of the mansion and walks down the stairs to the lab._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Yes, sir?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“What’s on my schedule for today?” he gets down into the lab and punches in the code and opens it. “Also tint the windows.” The windows outside the lab turn dark preventing anyone from the outside from seeing inside._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“You have a plane trip to Afghanistan for the Jericho missile presentation. Which you will be late for if you don’t get ready soon, so I suggest-” Tony shudders at the mention of Afghanistan. Definitely not going there._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Cancel it.” He says with no hesitation and makes his way over to the coffee maker in his lab._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Are you sure, sir?” Jarvis asks, “I believe that would be unwise.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Cancel it.” he repeats. Tony makes himself a cup of coffee and walks over to his work station. He makes a hand motion and his holo screens pop-up. “Found some things of interest that we might want to check out.” Jarvis seems to pause and Tony realizes that he’s probably acting out of the ordinary._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I shall alert Miss Potts, though she will not be happy.” At the mention of Pepper he stills. Pepper had died in his timeline. It was seemed ironic she died due to a disease that not even he could treat. He feels himself start to fall into a panic until he hears excited chirping. He turns and sees Dum-E. Realizing he’s been silent for far too long he swallows heavily._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Thanks, J.” is all he says. Dum-E moves his arm towards him excitedly beeping at him. Tony’s mouth quirks up in a smile at his bot’s antics. “Hey Dum-E.” Dum-E chirps in response._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Well, I guess it’s time to find out what the hell is going on.” He moves to grab one of the holo screens. “This was the only way? Yeah right Strange.” He huffs out to no one. Leading him to wonder why the hell Strange would do that. Jarvis takes note of that._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Who is ‘strange’?” Jarvis asks. Tony panics for a second wondering if he should tell Jarvis or not._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“No one important.” He says quickly, maybe a bit to quickly. “Hey J, Do you mind bringing up a few files for me?” He said deflecting the previous question._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Of course, sir.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________\--_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The first thing he does is blacklist ‘Natalie Rushman’. Don’t need her snooping around giving Shield information about him no one needs to know._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________After looking a while at information, Jarvis questions but Tony just tries to evade, he finds out he really is in the past. Everything is the same and lines up. It was too real to be an illusion, he wouldn’t remember where every single detail was and details he had forgotten about were there. He thinks of the Time Stone. The only possible explanation. Had Strange done something to it? Is that why he gave it to Thanos? If he did, why didn’t he just tell him, that would have definitely saved some heartbreak for him. If he knew this was the plan maybe the others wouldn't have died so quickly. A thought crosses his mind._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Peter.” Tony says suddenly. If he was in the past...That meant that Peter was alive. His kid had to be alive. After he dusted in his arms, Tony felt as if he shattered along with him. The lab felt empty after the boy’s presence was gone. “Jarvis, I need you to look for a boy.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Of course, sir.” a holoscreen pops up in front of him. “May I ask why?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I’ll tell you later, just look for a boy named Peter Parker.” Names begin popping up along with pictures in front of him. “If last and first name aren’t enough his middle name is Benjamin.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Are you alright, sir? You’ve experienced a severe anxiety attack today and are acting very different from your usual behavior.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I’m alright, J.” He answers Jarvis, a twinge of warmth for his AI shines. “I just got a lot of things I need to do right now.” He looks up at one of the camera’s. “I promise I’ll tell you.. Just not now.” It wasn’t like he didn’t trust his AI, hell he would trust Jarvis with everything, it’s just he didn’t know the full extent of what was happening. How would he even explain it too?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Jarvis seemed to accept his answer and decides not to push. Something Tony is thankful for. “Okay, sir.” Dum-E beeps next to him. “I just worry sometimes.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Really? You must worry a lot then.” Tony breaks a grin._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I found a few matches for a boy named Peter Parker,” a smaller list of names pop up, “One matches with the middle name Benjamin.” a photo pops up._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________It’s Peter. Tony’s emotions seem to go haywire for a second looking at the boy no older than 8. It’s his school photo from the looks of it and Peter is smiling brightly missing his two front teeth. His har has obviously been groomed but still has a bit of floofiness his teenage self had. His brown eyes shine brightly and it looked like he was on the verge of laughing in his photo. Seeing Peter, even as a kid, makes Tony nearly cry. His eyes start welling up as he looks at his kid. A soft but sad smile grows on Tony’s lips._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“You have any more photos?” He ask his voice thick with emotion. More photos pop up. Seeing photos of Peter being happy, healthy, and alive is almost too much for him and drops his head in his hands. Emotions flood throughout him. He’s alive, He’s alive. Tears start running down his cheek. They’re aren’t of sadness but of relief. He wants to hug the boys and never let him go, but he can’t. He’s miles away from him. It would also be weird if he did, he lives with his aunt and uncle, happily. He felt a twinge of jealousy, but knowing Peter was alive calms him. He remembers that his uncle had died after the spider bite, Peter never told him the location of where he got bit so he’d have to keep an eye out for that. Would Peter even become Spider-man? No matter, Peter was still a brilliant kid, that he might give his suits to, granted he didn’t blow up his lab first. Just so the kid could help people. Maybe he’ll create an actual internship program just to see him as a teen._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Dum-E beeps at him worriedly. Tony looks up and see’s Dum-E holding a tissue for him. Tony reaches out and grabs it._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Thanks Dum-E, I guess you sometimes aren’t a tragedy.” He wipes the moisture away from his face and throws it away. Dum-E chirps in response and Tony reaches out to pat the robotic arm who gladly receives the attention._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Jarvis can you watch over him for me? If anything happens let me know.” Tony still looks at the floating images of the boy, “How about the name ‘baby monitor’ protocol?” Tony laughs a little remembering all the weird names for protocols he came up with just to annoy the kid._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Anything for you, sir.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Thanks Jarvis.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________\---_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Tony is able to find and request for the old Stark expo model without much trouble. Jarvis had told him that it would arrive in a few hours. So once that was out of the way he moved onto the next thing on his list of priorities. Synthesize starknanium, using that make an arc reactor, make his suits, find a way to fire obadiah, shut down weapons, watch out for shield, avoid cap at all costs, deal with the guy who killed his parents, a lot more, oh and kill Thanos. Has cap even been defrosted or found yet? Thor hasn’t arrived yet, Banner is already a green angry rage monster, and as far as Tony is aware, Clint and Natasha are still both shield agents._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________He put an order for particle collider parts so he could create his upgraded version of the arc reactor. These versions of suits will be a lot less painful to make due to him already making over 50 different suits. He still winces at the thought of his first testing when he crashed into the ceiling. While the technology gap was the far, it still would take a while for his to build back up to nano-tech suit. He can get prototypes ready but actual nanotech will take a while. It helped that he no longer had shrapnel in his heart and no arc reactor currently lodged in his chest. He certainly won’t miss that. It’s nice to actually breathe air for once._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Currently, Tony is looking for logs for evidence of Obadiah's under the table dealing with his weapons. He sometimes curses his younger self for not realising it sooner but maybe it was just willful ignorance. He didn’t want to acknowledge it so he pretending like it didn’t exist even though he knew weapons of his were in wrong hands._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The opening of the door distracts him from looking at the financial logs. Realizing he told Jarvis to lock the door he turns. At the same time he remembered only a few people have access to his mansion in the first place. Stane never had access to his lab so he didn’t need to worry there. He hears the clicks of stilettos and looks to see Pepper. His eyes widen at her youthful appearance. Pepper’s hair neatly tied up into a bun with an annoyed look in her eyes as she hangs up on the phone she was talking to when she came in. Of course the first living person, he encounters that aren’t his bots is Pepper, his dead lover. So, for the third time in the day he panics as memories flash past his eyes when he see the redhead._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________\--_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Tony.” Pepper says softly with a her weak and hoarse voice._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________They’re in a hospital room. The room is a suffocating white. A random abstract art is hung on the front wall attempting to the the room some atmosphere. The air is still and stagnant. Everything about the room seems to suffocate him. Pepper lies in a hospital bed looking impossibly small for it. Multiple monitors are attached to Pepper constantly reading her vitals. From the open window light streams in illuminating the floating dust._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Pepper’s face is a sunken in and her blue eyes are hazy with fog. Her skin has a sickly ashen grey tone to it. Her orange hair has lost its shine and it’s now dull. Pepper’s hair is draped across the pillow she rests on. Sunlight illuminates most of her expect for her face. It hurts. It hurts Tony to see the woman he loves suffering like this. It hurts so see the strong woman Pepper look so weak and frail. It hurts Tony so much to see her in this state. Everything about her seems to lose its fine polish. It didn’t feel right._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________He holds her left hand, their engagement ring shining in the sunlight. He gently rubs her hand feeling the tendons and bones through the skin. Her hand is bony and feels so frail._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Tony.” She repeats more firmly looking at him with her hazy eyes. He looks up from her hand to stare at her blue eyes. She looks at him a soft loving expression and gives him a weak and strained smile. He can’t smile back at her. Pepper’s face is creased with pain but even then she tries to stay strong. She then removes her hand from his grasp and brings it up to cup Tony’s face. Tony sinks into her hand and brings his own hands to lightly grasp her hands. Tears begin to threaten to flow over Tony’s eyes._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Tony,” Her voice sounds choked up, “I love you.” Those three words break Tony and the dam breaks. Tears begin to freely flow from Tony’s eyes down his cheeks. Pepper gives his a sad smile as she begins to softly caressed his cheek with her hand. His hand begin to tremble lightly around hers. Soft sobs begin to echo from him. First Peter, Happy, then Rhodey, and now Pepper. Who else would he lose? Who was he if he couldn’t even save the ones most important to him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________In the silence of the room, the only thing that could be heard was quiet sobbing. Even the dust floating in the sunlight seemed to still_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Pepper dies just a few days later. The doctors had told Tony that she had fought for as long as she could but in the end, her hardest wasn’t enough. She was unable to hold on long enough for a cure to made. Even with all the cutting edge technology he had access to, she was gone. He wasn’t able to save her. Her absence left Tony empty. Without he he felt like a burnt out match with no purpose. It was painful to even think about her. So he didn’t. The moment she was gone he locked himself in his labs for days. Never had the bottles of alcohol look so appetizing. He almost did. He didn’t. Peter would have been disappointed. Instead of drinking he threw himself into his work and disappeared into his lab._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Steve and the remaining team members tried to get him out of his lab. The ex-avengers weren’t allowed in his lab and all messages they sent Tony had Friday mute their messages. The only one allowed was Bruce, but even then he could see the toll of the deaths had taken on Tony. The days from there on were a blur. He wasn’t really sure how productive those days were. All Tony could think of was Pepper, but never for long before trying to distract himself. He knew that locking himself in his lab was counterproductive. He knew but it hurt so much to see just things that reminded him of her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The funeral was a week later. Part of it was a public event due to her status. Thousands had arrived to mourn for Pepper Potts. The second part was only for people she knew personally. Tony didn’t attend or speak at her public mourning. When he finally emerged from his lab he looked dead on his feet. He stayed the back too overcome with grief to even be near her after spending days trying to forget. When he did actually look at her, it had shocked him how much it just looked like she was sleeping. Her face was lightly dusted with makeup with enough to hide her sickly pallor. It was more painful to see her sleeping like this instead of her sickly body in the hospital room. People had tried to speak to him. Tony didn’t hear them. All he could focus on was the lowering of Pepper’s casket into the grave._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Right next to the graves of Harold 'Happy' Hogan and James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The dirt was layered onto the casket in large clumps slowly covering it. With each drop of dirt Tony’s heart cracked with it. That was the last time he ever saw Pepper_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________\--_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Pepper sits in her office. She’s on her phone and computer on a call about a few pieces of art restoration that Stark Industries could help fund. At the same time she was writing and sending out emails. Being Tony’s assistant, she’s basically has learned how to run his company for him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________She was about to call Tony and ask where he was, he was already late by and hour to the plane flight that he was scheduled to go in. She may have just been his assistant but next time she saw him she would have a word with him. Knowing Tony he just brushed it off for a while. Especially in times like these, Pepper really felt like she basically ran the company, she just needed Tony’s signatures for things. It might be wishful thinking to think she does run the company it just really felt like that sometimes. She said goodbye to the person on the phone and hanged up. She went to Tony’s number before Jarvis spoke to her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Miss Potts?” Jarvis asks front the walls capturing her attention._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Jarvis? Is something the matter?” Pepper asks looking at her phone._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Boss has canceled the weapons presentation.” Jarvis said apologetically. Pepper drops her phone. It lands with an audible thud._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“What.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________\--_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Pepper was certain this time she might come close to killing tony. It might not be very professional to do so but sometimes the man made her job so hard. She leaves and locks her office and goes out to her car. She gets in and heads to Tony’s Mansion. When she gets there she walks in. Her black heels click on the marble floor when she walks. She goes down the stairs leading to the lab. Pepper notices the windows are tinted. Which is unusual. She enters the pin for the door and it unlocks. She pulls open the door and walks in._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________When she enters her heels click and echo across the floor alerting Tony of her presence if Jarvis hasn’t already told him. She hangs up with the person on the phone she was speaking with and looks at Tony. Around him are multiple holo-screens, a few with photos of a young boy that are only there for a split second before disappearing. Tony turns and looks at her, he freezes._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Which Pepper finds odd. The look in his eyes is almost a haunted panic. When she makes eye contact with him she realizes how much older he looks. It’s almost as if he aged overnight. For a few seconds Pepper just looks at him, she looks at his eyes that are blown wide open, his eyes have a redness to them making her think he’s been crying. Tony seems to be lost in his own world by staring at her but not acknowledging her. Was he drinking last night?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________She’s not sure what to do._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Tony.” She says firmly to him. Her calling out to him seems to break him from his trance and Tony lets out a breath and Pepper realises how exhausted he looks once he relaxes his body. It gives her an odd feeling of something being off but she decides to brush it off._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Tony,” she repeats. “What are you doing here?” Tony looks at her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Working.” Was his reply._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“You are supposed to be halfway across the world right now.” Pepper says to him, but Tony turns back to look at his screens. “Do you mind telling me why Jarvis said you decided to cancel the weapons presentation? Last I checked you had everything planned and prepared for this event.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I found some..” Tony pauses searching for words. He swipes his hands and gestures for one of the holo screens. “Interesting things.” The holoscreen pops up and millions of numbers run in front of her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“You’re trying to say?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“The numbers don’t add up, missing stock, money coming from nowhere, no records of were some defective weapons go, and coincidentally a lot of the missing products are in the hands of terrorists.” The holo-screens shift. “I’ve looked at the records, they were edited, but not well enough. With some work the original reports show up.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“And?” She prompts him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Someone is dealing weapons under the table.” Pepper is a little confused but then realizes all the things he said points to it. “Someone is selling weapons to unauthorized buyers.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“That’s a large accusation, it’ll take a lot of work to actually convince people and do something about this.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Which is why I’ll just tell the public myself.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Pepper blinks._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“What?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“It’ll be easier to do damage control if they were already told by us, instead of some 3rd party newspaper. We’ll be able to control the story more easily and turn it in our favor. Hopefully.” Pepper goes silent._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“And it’s my job to make sure you run your company.” She looks at him firmly in his eye. “This deal was set up months prior.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I’m not going.” Tony says standing his ground. Pepper sighs from frustration._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“The military won’t be happy.” She groans. “It’ll be a nightmare to even try.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Well then, no guns for them.” Pepper realizes right now, Tony won’t budge. She sighs loudly because Tony just made her job that much harder._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Look, Pep.” He starts softly. “There’s a lot on my mind right now and I think I just need time to sort things out.” She thinks of his eyes that seem so tired. She wonders what had happened that caused him to look this way. Everything about him right now seems so far from his regular confident self._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“The great Tony stark taking a vacation?” she jokes lightly observing his reactions carefully. “That’s rare.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Just a few days.” He begins to walk away. “Once things are situated I’ll be back. I also have a few important projects to work on.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Where are you going? This conversation isn’t over.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I was under the impression it was.” He responds not looking back._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Well it isn’t,” She walks after him. “The MIT Commencement-”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“It’s in June, I believe.” He interrupts her. “Please don’t harangue me about this stuff.” Tony has walked over to his makeshift kitchen area and stopped, so Pepper stopped as well._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Well they’re haranguing me so I’m going to say yes.” Pepper brings out her folder and writes something down. She looks back up and notices Tony has grabbed a cup of coffee for himself._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Deflect and absorb it, don’t transmit it back.” Tony walks back up to her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I need you to sign some things, well originally before you left but I guess you’re not doing that.” She told him with a little venom dripping into the last part._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“You have plans?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Well of course I have plans.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“It’s your birthday, isn’t it? Already?” Tony makes a face. Pepper looks at him in surprise, she half expected him to forget._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Isn’t it strange? It’s the same day as last year.” Tony smiles fondly at her with a distant look in his eyes. “and I’m allowed to have plans on my birthday.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Never said you couldn’t.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Jarvis, order one of those things that Pepper was talking about.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“The heels or the dress?” Jarvis asks._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Both.” Pepper could only watch the exchange in mute surprise._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Oh, and get yourself something nice for me too.” Pepper laughs at Tony’s antics._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Thank-you, Mr. Stark.” She laughs and smiles. This makes Tony laugh as well._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Your welcome Miss Potts.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________\--_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Needless to say, trying to cancel it was a disaster. Rhodey was not amused and most definitely pissed. He waited for hours for Tony to arrive on the plane until Pepper had called him. Obadiah Stane’s plot was foiled, for now at least._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________\--_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________It was a bit of a white lie when he lied to Pepper. He already knew the main person behind the weapons selling, but seeing her was so unbelievable. But it wasn’t his _Pepper. _Everyone he saw die, would be alive now as it’s ten years in the past. Everyone. Peter, Rhodey, Happy, it was unbelievable. They may not be the people he knew, but still they were his friends. He also realizes he’s now ten years older than everyone. That’s weird.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________His mind wandered back to Thanos. He may not have his Arc reactor currently but if he wanted to beat Thanos, he’ll need a suit. To have a suit he’d need to make one. To make a suit, well you just have to make a suit._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Jarvis you awake?” He stands up from his desk. “I’d like to open a new project file, and index it as Mark I.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! thanks for reading my fic, this was my first time writing Tony so if he seems ooc let me know! If you liked it please leave a comment or kudos, it fuels me to write more! Any feedback is appreciated!!!
> 
> MCU timeline is terrible so if any events don't add up also let me know. Also I forget things. I'm going off of release dates and articles I found dedicated to laying out the films in chronological order.
> 
> Annoy me on [Tumblr](https://pomegranate-pomagranite.tumblr.com/)
> 
> up next: Rhodey!
> 
> Edit May 2019: added more relevant tags and removed characters tags that weren't in the upcoming story just yet  
> edit May 2019: Minor grammar fixes


	2. Slipping of the Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you gotta make a suit, you make a suit, and maybe have a just few hijinks along the way. Rhodey and Tony talk with each other, and Jarvis worries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for all the kudos, hits, and comments! Each one of them really made my day!!! Like over 100 kudos in a few days?? I never expected this reaction from my fic so really thank-you all!! 
> 
> ughhh I messed up the formatting on this so much, its fixed but it was a pain.
> 
> Also enjoy a thousand words more lol.
> 
> I changed my username from lady_idk to lady_pomegrante, so any old comments by that user is me.
> 
> There's basically a summary of all the events(important movies) in one part.

Tony could go to a facility with a particle accelerator. He has the money after all. But it felt like too much effort, he could build it in his lab in a day with no questions from anyone. _Yes because that is most definitely not more work._ But, he probably couldn’t use the accelerator in a day, this was much quicker. He wouldn’t get many questions, he is a CEO of a tech/weapons company, it's just the type of questions he would receive and all the paperwork. Ugh. Paperwork. There’s a reason he gave the company to Pepper. He’d much rather just invent things than run the company. Besides, the parts had already arrived, so too late to back out now. The stark expo was also delivered and sitting in his lab currently. Pepper as promised didn’t bother him for the 3 days he was in his lab. It was hard to look at her without thinking of his dead fiance.

The suit was already designed not made but designed. Tony knew each design by heart. The problem was the technology available currently. To give him the power at this time he decided to forgo using palladium and instead used the element he was able to synthesize. It had a much better power output allowing for him to do more than what he was able to do at first. Experience also helped when making these suits. Making over 50 marks, some were extremely rushed but each one he learned a little more and it was helpful. It took him about 2 days to finalize the suit design. 2 days to long if you asked him.

He was gonna go blow up some people and save Yinsen, who he hoped was alive.

All that was left is to make the arc reactor.

He goes over to the four pieces of the stark expo and loads it onto a table. He locked each piece together. He didn’t realize it at first but his body was much weaker than what it was ten years in the future. That’s to be expected, he worked out almost daily so he could move the exoskeleton with more ease. If he was ever without a suit, he wouldn’t go down without a fight. His hand ghosted to the stab wound. He moved his hand away and made a mental note to work out later. He took a step back to look at the expo making sure everything was in place.

“Jarvis could vacuform a digital wireframe. I need a manipulative projection.”

Blue lights run along the model. Scanning each building, road, tree, everything. The model lights up in the blue light of the scanner. A soft vrr sound is made as the scanning reaches completion

“1974 Stark Expo Model scan complete.”

Tony Smiles and lifts the projection of the table and into the air. The block of building spin around rapidly then slowing to be on its side facing Tony. He looks over it, similar memories flood through his head. Tony walks over to look at the center of the atom, the giant globe.

“What does look like Jarvis? Not unlike an atom..” He asks Jarvis, despite already knowing the answer. He taps the globe enlarging it and sits back into his chair.

“Lose the footpaths.” He swipes his hand and they leave and fly away.

“What is it that you’re trying to achieve Sir?” Jarvis asks.

“I'm rediscovering a new element.” he looks at the projection.

“Get rid of the landscaping and trees. Parking lots. Exits. Entrances.” He moves his hand removing each object form the digital map. He remembers how this went now. “Structure the protons and neutrons.” 

One by one the buildings line up around the sphere. More of a multi-sided polyhedron. Pieces fly into existence and land. Slowly, an atom forms. It takes shape and despite seeing this before Tony can’t help but feel a sense of pride once again. He claps his hands once and the projection widens. Blue spheres line the room. Amazement fills Tony once again at the of it sight. He looks around with a smile on his face. He claps once again and now the atom is compressed in his hand as he looks at it again.

“Congratulations Sir, you have found an element not existing on the periodic table.”

Tony hums looking at it. 

“Though it is not possible to be synthesized.”

Tony barks out a laugh at Jarvis’s familiar words. 

“Jarvis, live a little.” He moves over to some of the crates lying around his workshop. “Anything is possible. Expect for magic, that’s not real.” Jarvis ignores his last comment.

“Is this why you had ordered parts for the Particle Accelerator?”

“Yes, and it’s going to work,I know it,” Tony replies grabbing a pair of pliers. “We can synthesize it, we just gotta build this thingy.”

“Why is it we’re creating this element, sire?” Jarvis asks.

“The arc reactor.” He starts cutting the ties on the crates. “With this element, we should be able to power the reactor with much more power than its palladium core that it currently has.”

“A large amount would be required for the arc reactor in its current state.”

“Jarvis, at times like these, you gotta think of the small things.” Tony grins. He walks over to one of his tool crates and brings out a sledgehammer.

-

“The particle accelerator appears to be too large for the lab.”

“Yes, you’re right. “ God he wishes he had the compound lab right now. Tony picks up a sledge hammer. “That’s why it's remodel time.”

He pulls goggles onto his face and walks over to the wall. He swings the hammer with force into the wall. The hammer slam into the marked x he put there. The force of the blow rattles his bones but he keeps going. Swing after swing. Loud thudding sounds echo throughout the lab as he basically destroyed his own lab again. Maybe this time his mansion won’t blow up. Pieces of concrete fly throughout the lab with each swing as Tony chips through the wall.

“I needed a bigger lab anyway.”

-

The compact particle accelerator was almost done being put together. Just a coil or two had to be connected. His lab was basically a mess with debris from drilling holes into the wall. Tony was in the middle of the debris trying to connect two coils together when Jarvis popped up in front of him.

“Sire, James Rhodes has left a message.”

Rhodey?

_He tries not to think of Rhodey being crushed in the suit._

“Oh, really? What did platypus say this time?” Tony replies feigning a nonchalant voice. “Throw it on me, Jarvis.”

“In James Rhodes-” _he thinks of Rhodey’s grave._

“Just call him Rhodey, it feels too formal when you call him that. He interrupts Jarvis and bolts the two coils together with a loud click. 

“In Rhodey’s works,” Jarvis corrects his words. “Tony, you couldn’t even bother to call me that you’d be late, and then not even tell me you canceled? Pepper had to tell me. You’re lucky I had to tell the higher-ups about that. And had to deal with that. Meet at our usual place for dinner at 5. This time you better not be late or ditch me again.” Instead of Jarvis’s usual voice and accent it’s Rhodey’s.

“Is that your voice emulator or is that actually a recording?” He attaches another bolt with a loud click. Another loud click.

“I have a recording of his voice, but I was practicing the emulator.”

“You’re getting better at that I almost couldn’t tell.” He clicks in another bolt with an even louder click. “Go ahead and reply ‘sure thing platypus.’”

“Message sent to James Rhodes.”

“Jarvis what time is it?” he doesn’t look up from the coils as he places a level on the coils. It’s not completely flat. He remembers running into this solution last time. He runs over to the cabinets and searches for that awful Captain America shield wall decoration.

“It’s is currently 6 in the morning, you’ve been up since 10 P.M,I suggest you sleep.” Jarvis says.

“I slept longer than I usually do.” He pulls out a random object. It’s a bag of bolts. He tosses the bag away and it lands with a clang onto the ground of the lab.

“You slept for three hours, sir.”

“That's a whole two hours more! Wow lucky me.” He opens another crate to rummage around.

“Sir, you fell asleep on your workbench.”

“Caffeine is what keeps me going.” His voice is muffled by the crates due to his head being in a crate while he searches.

If Jarvis could sigh he would be doing that for sure.

“What are you looking for, sir?” 

“Captain America’s shield.” Tony goes over to another crate to search. Objects clink together loudly as he rustles through it. “It should be somewhere here..”

“Captain America’s shield?” Jarvis asked confused “Wasn’t that lost with him in the crash?”

“Not his vibranium shield, I'm looking for another one..” Loud noises emerge from the crate from things hitting together and the rummaging gets increasingly more frantic. “Aha!”

Tony triumphantly holds up the wall decor.

“There you are.” Tony says as he gets up from the crates that he made a mess of, not bothering to clean it up. “Jarvis, it’s time to get to work.”

“Weren’t we already doing that sir?”

Tony waves his hand in a dismissive gesture and walks over to the coils.

“Nah that wasn’t work, that was play.” He lifts one of the coils and Tony shoves the shield underneath. He drops the coil onto it and secures the shield in place. He places the level on it and checks it. The bubble level shows the coil is perfectly level. “This is where the real work comes into play.” He grins as he wipes the sweat off his face.

-

Tony walks over to one of the coils with a prism inside. He takes out a giant wrench and hooks it onto the gear. All things have moved aside from the laser paths. He doesn’t want a repeat of last time. Last time being running a plasma charged laser though the lab and cutting through everything.

In the center is a circular stand, in the middle of it a single triangle of metal. He places the crystal prism in the coil. Tony slides his goggle on and walks over to his computers. He puts in a key and it enters with a beep. He turns the key. A whirring sound gets louder and louder with each passing second. A blue light lights up each coil as the laser rushes through.

“Initializing prismatic accelerator.” Jarvis says while Tony sheds his shirt and walks over knob that would turn the prism. He grips the wrench and begins turning the gear. The whirring sound increased almost tenfold. “Approaching maximum power.”

The plasma charged laser begins moving with the gear across the lab. Despite him moving everything out of the way the laser still burns a line in the wall. A sizzling noise can be heard if you ignore the the noise of the laser. He grunts as he turns the gear. The lab is lit up in a bright blue with the lazer. Finally the lazer makes contact with the small triangular piece of metal in the middle of the stand. It makes a loud ting noise and the metal lights up with the laser. It reaches the middle of the triangular metal and the metal absorbs the laser. 

A flash of blue light illuminates the lab for a second then Tony quickly shuts down the particle accelerator. He takes of the goggles and walks towards it. He picks up a pair of tweezers and directs it towards the glowing piece of blue metal.

 

“Congratulations sir, you have created a new element.”

Tony hums holding the starknanium/badassium with a pair of tweezers. The element glows brightly in a blue light. He places it in a container to hold it. He gets to building the Arc Reactor. He had all the pieces ready, now was just assembling it. It doesn’t take him long. It’s almost as thin as his most recent reactor that held the nineties. It’s in its circular shape right now, rather than the triangle shape it had when fighting Thanos. Current technology still limits him. It’s much nicer to not have it in his chest and nearly die of heavy metal poisoning. He coils the last wires and places the top over it. He checks it over a few times to make sure everything is in place. Taking the new element with a pair of tweezers he places it the arc reactor. The mechanism closes around it.

The arc reactor makes a low humming noise as it starts up. The blue light starts flickering then becomes stable. It glows in Tony’s hand illuminating his face with a blue light. The reactor glows like the tesseract in his hand. Tony thinks back to his time in Afghanistan captivity. It’s strange, the first time he made the reactor was in a cave, and now it’s in his lab.

He thinks of Yinsen.

-

Tony sits at the dirty desk in the dim light of the cave. The arc reactor glows brightly against the contrast of the cave. It lights up his face and nearly burns his eyes to look at. Lights flicker in the cave. A low humming noise is audible Yinsen comes up behind him.

“That doesn’t look like a Jericho missile.” Yinsen says observing the glowing blue object in front of him.

Tony doesn’t look up at him and instead focuses on the reactor. Car battery still attached to his chest. With this he’ll be able to have more mobility, increasing the chance to escape successfully. With every breath there’s a constant pain in his chest. The reactor sits in front of him attached to a skeleton of a missile.

“That’s because it is a miniaturized arc reactor.” He pauses still looking at the glowing object. Is voice is monotone. “I've got a big one powering my factory at home.”

He taps the table near the reactor. “It’ll keep the shrapnel out of my heart.”

“What could it generate?”

“If my math is right..” Tony pauses thinking for a second. “And it always is, three gigajoules per second.”

Yinsen’s face twists into a muted expression of astonishment. 

“That could run your heart for fifty lifetimes!” Yinsen exclaims softly.

“Yeah…” Tony looks at Yinsen carefully. “Or something big for fifteen minutes.”

-

“You said earlier that how to power the machine?” Tony examines the reactor in his hands. Yinsen, Tony hopes he’s alive. This time, maybe he’ll save him. He can feel the pressure build against his eye threatening to flow over. Tony tries to shut up his mind and emotions. “This. Right here. Is how we’re gonna do it.”

The suit parts were already made, well most of it, he made it while waiting for the particle accelerator parts and the expo model. All that was left was to put all the parts together and make sure everything is in working order. Now that the arc reactor was made, he can get to making everything connect and work together. He sends the blueprints to Jarvis so JarvI's can make the needed plates and cords. Tony gets to working on the inner part of the exoskeleton suit. Connecting wires with each other now that he has a power source. It’s about 2 hours later when the inner working is done. He gives it to Jarvis who takes it to the printing area. 

“How long till the suit’s fabricated?

“About 12 hours sir.” Jarvis responds. Tony looks at the number and sighs. Might as well work on some upgrades then. It's currently three PM.

-

Tony arrives at the restaurant a few minutes late. He lost track of the time despite Jarvis telling him that he would be late to dinner. When he arrives Rhodey is sitting in the waiting area with an annoyed expression on his face. His arms are crossed and his forehead is creased. Tony looks at Rhodey and does his best to force a smile onto his face. He tries to will his high strung body to look relaxed as it possibly could without looking weird. He’s not sure if it works. He takes a step towards Rhodey who by now notices his presence in the restaurant. Rhodey’s eyes light up and stands up and walks to meet him. He notices he isn’t using his bionic legs Tony made for him. Oh, the accords hasn’t happened.

He hasn’t forgotten what happened to Rhodey. Honestly, he probably never would.

“I thought I told you not to be late.” Rhodey lightly glares at him. Don't think of his grave. Don’t. “I thought I specifically said ‘don't be late’.”

“Well Platypus, you know me. You should just be glad I'm even here.” He opens his arms for a hug. Rhodey accepts the hug. He wraps his arms around Rhodey. Rhodey's Body was flesh and blood and most importantly alive. The warmth of his friend body only further cements him in the past. Rhodey pulls from the brief hug. He looks and sees Rhodey place one of his hand on his shoulder.

“Good to see ya tones.” Rhodey smiles brightly at him. _Don't think of his lifelesseyesandcrushedskull._ “Next time though.” The smile turns into a glare that Tony knows is playful, “Call me and tell me it yourself. And don’t forget. You have a phone you know.”

“As if I would ever.” Is what Tony replies. He gives a strained smile and Rhodey raises an eyebrow but he doesn’t comment on it.

“Really now?” Rhodey’s grin is back. “I can think of multiple times you were late. More than a few off the top of my head.”

“I lose track of the time.” _Don’t think about that. He’s alive._

“Uh-huh, that’s what you always say.” Rhodey quips back, “What about a few days ago, you were gambling instead of being at an awards show.”

“Oh, now you’re just bullying me.” Tony feels a smile grow on his lips.

“Maybe I should just start telling you the wrong times, but two hours earlier so you’re actually on time.” Rhodey his previous comment and goes on speaking like he didn’t say anything.

“I arrive early sometimes.”

“Key-word, sometimes.” Tony scoffs as Rhodey says this. They glare at each other for a second before Rhodey bursts into laughter at their light hearted teasing. Tony soon follows the suit and then the both of them laughing like kids in the middle of a restaurant.

For a second Tony forgets about being in the past, the stress of the future, and Thanos. It’s pleasant. It’s just light hearted joking with his best friend of years. He doesn’t have to worry about being Ironman or living up to standards. Tony can just be.. Tony. Rhodey says a quick word and goes over to the host requesting a table. As he walks away a image of War Machine's crushed suit flashes past his eyes. _Tony, don’t. He’s okay and he’s alive._ Maybe not in his timeline, but Rhodey’s alive here and now. This is where Tony is now. He was fine seconds ago, _don’t ruin your night with your friend because you can’t get over a death that happened months ago_. He tries to convince his own mind that he’s fine. He feels himself being swallowed by his mind and him being unable to do anything to stop it. Tony’s pretty sure that having all his friends die, but then them being alive isn’t quite healthy for the mind.

“Tony?” Rhodey looks at him concerned. Tony hadn’t noticed him coming back from the Host’s table.

“Yeah?” Tony settles back into his persona. It’s a partial mask that he wears. It feels terrible to wear it around Rhodey. He has the suspicion that Rhodey can tell he’s wearing his mask, as partial it may be. The masks hide irregularities and smooth anything out in an almost too perfect mixture. It’s quite easy to make people see what they want to see and he has years of experience doing that. Practically from the moment he was born. Tony just can’t face Rhodey right now, if he were to wear his heart on his sleeve, he would be overcome with grief. Tony tries to mute his emotions. He relaxes his shoulders despite the tension he feels. Then schools his face into an easy expression and attempts to calm the swirling torrent of emotions in his head. He’s able to wear it with ease.

“The tables this way, not in space.” Rhodey gestures back to the host who was walking away and leading them to their table. Rhodey turns to follow. Tony silently follows him to the host. He gives Rhodey a reassuring smile as he tries to give him the best reassuring smile he possibly can to tell Rhodey that he’s fine. He’s really not. Rhodey seems to accept it but with hesitance.

The restaurant is filled with idle chatter. Clinkling of utensils against each other, Glasses clinking and mundane conversations are heard as they make their way through. It gives the restaurant a homey feel. Warm lights hang on the ceiling and above the booths both basking the restaurant in a yellow glow. The restaurant is far from high end, but it became their go to place to eat when they were pretty much broke college students. It has good food for good prices, not that it matters when Tony is a billionaire. They were both happy to find out there was a location in Malibu. A wave of nostalgic falls over him, it’s been years since he’s eaten here.

The host leads them to a booth near the back. They thank Rhodey and Tony for coming and set the menus down and the host goes back to their counter. Rhodey and Tony sit on opposite sides of the booth. Tony picks up a menu and flips through it. Rhodye follows that suit and they both review the menu choices. They discuss a few of them, talk about the old ones, and ask about the new dishes.

“Have you been getting any sleep lately?” Rhodey suddenly asks. “Your eyebags are almost the size of the Grand Canyon.”

Tony can’t help laugh at Rhodey’s question and comment. “You’d have to ask Jarvis. I’m pretty sure I’m running on fumes at this point.” He grins brightly at Rhodey’s unimpressed face.

“Tony.” Rhodey sighs.

“James.” Tony replies with a cheeky grin. Rhodey’s face becomes even more unimpressed and Tony’s grin gets largely. _War machine with a crushed suit and helmet lying limp on the ground._

No.

“Pepper said you were working on something?” Rhodey asks. “She briefly said that it was one of the reasons you wouldn’t go, she didn’t say the other reasons.” So Pepper didn’t tell them about his suspicions of illegal shipping.

“Yeah, it’s something big.”

“It’ll make people happy if it’s better than the Jericho Missile.” Tony gets a sense of dejavu. “With that stunt you pulled-”

Tony interrupts.

“What? Me not going to the weapons presentation in Afghanistan?” He starts fiddling with the corners of the menu that was peeling off.

“Yes, more than a few higher ups were angry. Since I’m your liaison, that anger was directed at me.” Rhodey says obviously annoyed. “Whatever you’re making better be worth it.” Tony knows Rhodey’s thinking of weapons being his project. His suit isn’t but that’s supposed to be a secret now. It’s probably best if he keeps it that way. He glances at his watch, about 9 hours to go. 

“Trust me Rhodey, this is worth it.”

“Mm-hmm.” Rhodey hums not looking up form his menu. “I hope you know and are sorry for how much pain you caused me. When you were a no-show it was awful trying to convince them that something came up, especially when you didn’t tell Pepper the whole reason. You’re lucky she’s such a great assistant.” Tony freezes. Stop freezing up at the mention of your dead friends. Rhodey doesn't see his sudden freeze. “Honestly, without her I’m pretty sure your company would be in shambles.”

“Hey now don’t think so bad of me.” Tony protests lightly. Rhodey raises an eyebrow and looks up from his menu. An expression of ‘oh really?’ is on his face. “Fine, she’s a great assistant.”

“Only ‘great?’” Rhodey teases him with a smile on his face. 

The waiter decides to come at this point, saving Tony from Rhodey’s teasing. He introduces himself politely and takes their order for drinks.

“Can I interest you in any of our alcoholic drink specials for today?” The waiter asks politely. Rhodey is about to answer but Tony beats him to it. 

“No thanks.” The waiter simply nods and takes their drink orders to the back to get them. When he looks back at Rhodey his face is one of confusion. 

“What?” He asks. Tony then realizes he was never one to refuse any form of alcohol at this age. Tony stopped drinking long ago. No one knows that now though. 

“Nothing.” Rhodey shakes his head, confusion still evident on his face.

They sit in silence for a few moments and Tony picks up the menu.

“Tones, you do know you can tell me anything?” It’s Tony’s turn to be confused and he looks up from his menu. “You don’t need to do this lone gunslinger act. You don’t have to do anything alone.” _Stop thinking about his grave._

“Why do you think that?” Tony hesitantly asks after a few moments. He doesn’t look Rhodey in the eye. Tony’s mask begin to crack slightly at Rhodey’s words.

“Something's bothering you.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement. Tony looks up at Rhodey. “Tones, I’m your best friend. I know when somethings up.” Tony swallows and briefly thinks of telling Rhodey. 

This wasn’t the time or place.

“You’re right…” Tony mumbles. “I just can’t tell you right now. Rhodey sighs.

“You don’t have to, you know?” Rhodey speaks softly as if talking to a frightened animal. “Just know that I’ll always be here for you, okay?”

 

“Thanks, Platypus.” Tony smiles weakly at him.

-

The mood considerably lifts after that conversation. All they talk about is just idle chatter jumping from one topic to another. None of the conversations go below the surface, but it’s nice. To have a good time, conversations don’t always have to be deep or thought provoking, sometimes it’s just being in company of said person. It’s pleasant to not have to talk so seriously and to just have a fun time. Just conversations about everyday mundane things, nothing about aliens invading the earth or any other world threatening situation. Tony can’t recall having a conversation like this in the future and in the days in the past. He finds himself genuinely relaxed and forgot what it was like to have a best friend. Especially after.. _Don’t. The mask was slipping but Tony never let it fall completely._

The waiter comes by a little later with their drinks and sets them down. He gives them recommendations when they ask and then takes their orders and leaves. A while later the water comes to their table with their food. Their present conversation falls into silence. They enter a comfortable silence while they eat their food. The food is definitely good and Tony nearly scarfs it down, still not used to having actual food at his disposal. After eating rations for months actual food with taste was definitely a welcome change to his diet. They finish their food and talk some more when the waiter comes with the check.

Rhodey tries to pay for his half but Tony refutes that and pays for the whole meal. The check is paid and tony tips a pretty considerable amount for their meal. They walk out of the restaurant into the cool night air. It’s not super late but still night. Rhodey is holding his bag of leftovers. They walk over to Rhodey’s car. Tony bids him goodbye and turns to go to his own expensive car.

“Tones.” Rhodey says stopping him.

“Yeah?” he turns to look at him.

“Take care of yourself alright? Can’t have you dying on my watch.” Tony smiles, a real genuine smile.

“Sure thing, Rhodey.”

With that, Rhodey gets into his car and drives off. Tony watches as his car disappears into the winding streets of the city. 

Tony brings out his watch to look at it. The suit is ready in about 7 hours. Tony sighs and steps into his own car, a convertible. He drives off into the night. The wind whips in his face, he can’t have that experience when he’s wearing a helmet. Tony enjoys driving, just feeling the car speeding over the ground is amazing. The soft hum of the engine. It’s almost like flying, nothing would ever beat flying in the sky. The feeling of being almost weightless was exhilarating. He wishes his suit was done by now so he could just have the feeling of being free.

-  
Tony gets back to the mansion without any problems. He took the scenic route and enjoyed just being. It was a way to do something mindlessly but with enough distraction that Thanos couldn’t take over his thoughts. He enters his garage with the car and parks it in his lab. There’s a counter as a holo-projection telling him time until fabrication. This time, he won’t have icing problems. He just hopes his calculations are correct and he won’t have any delays with the suit.

“Welcome back, sir.” Jarvis greets him. “Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah actually,” Tony sits down at his desk at his computer. “Put the lab on ‘do-not-disturb’ mode, will ya? I have a few more things to work on.”

“I apologize for asking this again, but are you sure you are alright? Your behavior has been very different lately.”

Tony thinks of telling Jarvis. He must be worrying over Tony like crazy. He realizes how much his behavior must be out of the ordinary. Guilt floods over him. Should he tell him? Would he think he’s crazy? It’s Jarvis so probably not. It’s not time yet. A small voice speaks in his mind. 

Will it ever be?

He thinks of Ultron. Of Jarvis’s death. Vision. The Mind Stone. Sokovia.

Tony sighs.

“Sir?” Jarvis interrupts his thoughts. 

“Yeah J?” 

“Are you alright, sir?” Jarvis asks, his voice pitching higher slightly. “You’ve been staring intensely at that spot in the wall for the past five minutes. May I ask what about it is so interesting?” This causes Tony to let out a small laugh.

“I'm…” Tony starts but then stops. He takes a deep breath and prepares to leap. 

“You’ve ever seen one of those... terrible movies?” He slightly mumbles out, still unsure. Guess he’s doing this. “And said terrible movies are well, time travel movies.” His hand fidgets with his pen. “Where the protagonist is sent back in time to stop some catastrophic event?”

Jarvis doesn’t say anything but Tony can tell Jarvis is searching and observing him.

“Well, just imagine any of those movies... But with me.” he points to himself. How does he explain this without sounding insane? “I'm that crazy protagonist, who’s traveled back into the past due to a catastrophic event.”

“Except.. It wasn’t supposed to be to be the one to fix everything.I don’t know if I can, but I guess I have too.” Tony continues not looking at anything except for the smudge on the table. “Too many people died for me to have this opportunity so,I can’t afford to make mistakes.” Tony goes silent. 

“Time travel?” Jarvis asks, “That’s impossible.”

“Somehow it is. Otherwise, I'd be in Afghanistan in a cave with a car battery lodged into my chest.” He grumbles out resting his head in his hand, trying to avoid the subject. He didn’t want to think of how close he was to experiences that again. He wouldn’t ever do that again.

“Is this why you’ve been acting so different from the past few days?” Jarvis asks and then goes on without receiving an answer. “That would explain your sudden gain in knowledge about technology that doesn't exist. How you knew how to build everything. It as if you’ve made the ‘mark I' project thousands of times before. You know how each component worked and how to make it its best capacity. There were almost no errors in creating the suit. The element, the arc reactor, and suit. You are acting on prior knowledge.” Tony gapes a little at Jarvis’s word vomit.

“Spot on, you’re even better than I remembered.” He smiles softly.

“Remembered?” Jarvis asks. “Did something happen to me?” Tony can’t say anything as memories of Sokovia dance in his head. He nods slowly.

“How is time travel possible?” Jarvis asks him confused, letting the topic of Jarvis’s death fall. Jarvis knew that was probably a sensitive topic. “I don’t understand how it’s possible to travel back in time.”

“You and me both.” He lets out a huff of air and turns to look at Jarvis’s main lab camera. “Though I assume it has to something with Strange.”

“You’ve mentioned this name before.”Jarvis states, then inquires, “Who is this person?”

“Dr. Stephen Strange was the name he told me.” Tony thinks of how to describe the man he only knew for hours. “He was a wizard, correction, sorcerer. Apparently, his name is actually Strange, and he his a doctor with a MD. and all.” Tony lets out a faint laugh. 

_There was no other way. Titters through his mind._

Shut up.

“He does magic, which it hurts me to even call it that because I don’t believe in that voodoo stuff.” Tony explains. “He has this weird sentient cape, Which defies all laws because it floats.” Everything about Strange was well, strange. He briefly wonders how many puns Strange has heard about his name. 

“Magic..?” Jarvis asks.

“My reaction exactly.” Tony says looking at Jarvis’s camera.

“I assume it’s his work because he had possession of the time stone that allowed him to manipulate time.” Tony thinks of Strange turning to dust. Then to Peter turning into dust. He plays with the pen more in his hands to try and not think about that because Peter’s alive and Strange doesn’t know of the future. 

“Dr. Stephen Strange is a neurosurgeon.” Jarvis tells him, a photo of the man pops up along with information next to it. 

“Oh, really? Can't believe that's actually his name.” 

Tony goes silent once again, thinking. He fiddles anxiously with the pen in his hand. Clicking and unclicking it repeatedly.

“Jarvis...Do you really believe me?”

“Based on your behavior, it would be the only logical conclusion.” Tony lets out a bated breath of relief. 

“So you don’t think I'm crazy?” Tony hesitantly asks.

“No sir, I do not.” Jarvis responds truthfully. He can feel his eyes start to water. Telling Jarvis, was hard and yet, it was easy. “Sir?”

“What’s up?”

“Next time please tell me. I'm programmed to help you and knowing this would have saved me CPU power.”

Tony lets out a small laugh. He still tries to suppress the thoughts of the past. So a small laugh is all he can manage. How could he ever worry about Jarvis?

“Hopefully there won’t be another time travel disaster, if there is I'll let you know.” he grins and let the pen drop onto the table.

“That would be ideal.” Jarvis quips back.

Tony should probably tell Jarvis about the future. It would be helpful to have him monitoring certain people and events.

“I should tell you about the future, it would be helpful.” The mood of the room instantly darkens.

“It would be helpful data, but there’s no need to overwhelm yourself.”

“No need to worry Jarvis, It’s best if I tell you.” Tony begins and Jarvis goes quiet and listens. “So let's start it from the beginning. I'm from ten years in the future.” 

-

Compared to this, telling Jarvis he was from the future was easy. Telling him about the future was a completely different story. Telling his AI brought up past memories. Things he tried to desperately tried to forget. Repressed thoughts resurface. Jarvis, being the great AI he is, listens and occasionally gives him reassuring words. It’s relieving. A weight has been lifted from his chest and he’s able to finally confide in someone. He’s able to talk about secrets that don’t exist now. It’s a bittersweet feeling. To be able to tell, but to have to think and relive his thoughts.

He tells Jarvis of Afghanistan. The three months he spent in a cave with Yinsen. The months of torture. The battery that was put in his chest. Obadiah Stane's plot of murder and said failure. Then the Ironmonger. Pepper.

_Stick to the plan!_

_This was always the plan._

He talks about the very thing that kept him alive was killing him. Reopening the Expo. Vanko attacking him at a race-car track. Nick Fury and his super secret boy band. Natasha Romanoff, or Natalie Rushman. Vanko attacking him again but with his drones. New-york. Cap being a dick. Some weird gods. Loki. The Tesseract. Chitauri Army. The portal.

_And suddenly he’s falling._

_The army of the Chitauri being blown up with a bomb. It’s almost beautiful. The smell of iron and something burnt fills his nose. He accepts the last thing he sees is the stars. He doesn’t die. The portal nearly closes on him as he falls. No longer is his vision of the stars, just the city of new york being destroyed and burning. His suit dying as he plummets to his death. Blacking out before he makes impact with the ground._

He’s back in his workshop. His hands grip the table so tightly his knuckles are white. His heart palpitates in his chest. Sweat drips down his neck and he’s hunched over the desk. He struggles to breathe as Jarvis tries to talk him softly out of his panic.

He’s able to continue his story despite Jarvis’s protests.

He resumes, with less emotion this time. He tells Jarvis the tale of the Mandarin. His mansion blowing up nearly killing Pepper. The boy, Harley. Extremis. Pepper being kidnapped. Having to choose between Pepper and the President. He saved both. Pepper falling to her death.Then the Clean Slate Protocol blowing up in the night sky in a morbid array of fireworks. 

Helicarriers nearly destroying millions of lives. Bucky Barnes. The infestation of hydra in Shield. 

Sokovia. Tony nearly stops but forces himself to keep talking. He thinks of the visions of death that eventually came true. The mind specter. The twins that blamed him for the deaths of their family. Trying to do the world good but it backfires. Ultron. Jarvis dying. The almost death of the world. Vison’s birth. Then… the fight over the accords. Steve and him disagreeing over the accords. Their arguments. Steve throwing it all away for one man. 

_I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart!_

_You did That when you signed._

Ross, the raft and the 72 hours. Recruiting Peter Parker, aka Spiderman. The airport fight. Natasha stabbing him in the back. Rhodey plummeting through the sky. Steve lying about his parents. His anger.

_He’s my friend._

_So was I._

The shield slams into his chest. And just for a moment, he thought this is where he would die. As Steve raised his shield, in the trajectory of his neck, but ends up hitting his chest causing his suit to power down. He lies on the ground unable to move as his power source was destroyed. He lets out a desperate yell at Steve who turns to leave. Steve only picks up his friend, Bucky. Tony yells again. Steve drops the shield. It falls in a loud clang to the ground and gleams in the light from the snow. Claw marks run down the side of it.

He can’t bring himself to talk more about Peter. So he doesn’t. Every time he does, Peter’s death flashes behind his eyelids. It was his fault that the boy had died. He's alive Tony.

_Mr. Stark I don’t feel so good…._

_I’m sorry.._

He’s pretty sure tears are running down his face as he recounts everything in his life from the past ten years.

He finally gets to Thanos. He talks about the wizard showing up the park with Bruce. The infinity stones. The space ship and the flight to Titan. The man from Missouri who seems like he’s stuck in time. The guardians, well three of them. Thanos arriving on the planet. The fight with the mad titan. Then, him being stabbed in the stomach with his own blade by Thanos.

_You have my respect, Stark. When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you_

He continues to recount the events. Strange and the timestone. Why? Thanos disappearing in a cloud of blue mist. And just minutes later, them all dusting on the alien planet expect for him.

He was left alone on Titan while everyone one he cared for died around him. 

When he finally gets back, billions are dead and even more are dying. Happy is the first to go, then Rhodey, and lastly Pepper. Everyone is torn from him.

He tells Jarvis of how the final fights went. Everyone able to fight, fighting. All the deaths. The gauntlet and the six stones. Steve Roger’s body lying in his arms. Natasha lying dead with Thor only meters away. Clint and Bruce’s earlier deaths. He doesn't say much about the final battles after the snap.

By the time he’s done, he’s crying. Big globs of tears run down his face and he grips the table so hard it might just bend under his hands. He’s an emotional mess and more than once had to stop in his words and just breathe. Jarvis had tried to stop him multiple times but Tony shushes him saying that he need stop say this. If he stopped he’d never talk about it. He feels lighter after telling Jarvis everything. The weight of the world seems to no longer rest just on his shoulders.

“And.. that’s it.” He chokes out slightly through tears

Jarvis is silent.

“Sir, you no longer need to keep this burden to yourself.” Jarvis says softly. “I'm here to help, that's my main purpose.”

“Thanks, Jarvis,” Is all he can say right now through his tears.

“For you sir? Always.”

-

 

Jarvis is … worried, at least as much as his programming allows him to. It’s in his code to care and help boss, so worrying is part of that. Boss has been acting very peculiar lately, it started a few days ago. He’d say the day that boss woke up and had a panic attack. His behavior from there only became weirder and weirder. He canceled the weapons presentation. It was not completely unusual but what was odd is how he did cancelled it. Lately, he’s been fixated on the ‘Mark I’ project. Sir is a genius, but this much technological knowledge seemed to come overnight. Boss is currently working over some small project. Probably to keep him occupied while the suit is being fabricated and analyzed. 

Everything about boss differs from the norm. His behaviors, sleep patterns and appetite. Sir sleeps less, eats less. Jarvis ran through all his programs but nothing gives him answers to sir’s sudden change. Jarvis thinks of the boy that Boss was so worried about. He wonders over to the reason why the boy was so special. He’s never heard of the boy before. He’ll ask more about the boy later. This thought trail then Miss Potts. The way Boss froze at every mention of her. He now knows why .

It was a bit of a shock to find out that sir is from years in the future. When he did, Jarvis realized everything matched up. His complete change in behavior. The technological knowledge. Everything… It all made sense. It astonishes Jarvis, it breaks all known laws and should be impossible, but it is ten years in the future. Who knows how much it has changed since now.

He knows that Sir’s mind is damaged. Trauma lines every action Sire does. The future has taken a toll on Sir’s mind. But Jarvis would do his best to help him.

Jarvis directs his attention to the cameras in Sir’s lab. Sir had fallen asleep on his workbench again. Jarvis watches over him. He monitors the rise and fall of his chest, his heartbeat. It seems to be the best sleep Sir has experienced in days. Jarvis decides it’s best for him to sleep now and lets him rest. Maybe for too long though, oh well, Sir needed the sleep.

He would do his best to protect sir from any of the threats he told Jarvis about.

He wouldn’t leave him again.  
-

Tony wakes up in the workshop a few hours later. A little annoyed Jarvis let him fall asleep for that long but he feels much more rested than he has for the past few days. The suit is near complete, thankfully. He gets up and exits the lab. He plans on taking a shower and removing all the ick and grime from his body. He doesn't need that smell in his suit. Tony looks out the window the see the night sky. There’s no stars, which isn’t odd. The amount of stars visible are nothing compared to what nights were like on the alien planet. He walks up the stairs when Jarvis calls out to him.

“Sir, you have a visitor, I tried to tell him you were sleeping but he wouldn’t leave.” Jarvis says apologetically. “I was only able to keep him out of your lab. I do recommend staying in the lab.” He’s already at the top of the stairs.

“Who is the-…?” The soft tinkle of piano interrupts him.

That’s odd.

“Oh, Tony!” A booming voice calls him as he steps foot into the living room area. “I figured you were in the lab, so I brought some food. Jarvis said you were sleeping in your lab, but he wouldn’t let me down there.”

Tony looks at the man and freezes. His face pales. Panic begins brewing him and all of his relaxed body tenses. He grips his shirt tightly while trying to school his expression into one of neutral surprise. His knuckles turn white from gripping his shirt. His muscles tense and adrenaline roars through his veins as his body rears for a fight. Involuntarily he takes a step back. His mind is screaming danger and alarm bells blare in his head. His visions blues momentarily as he looks at the man who sits playing the piano. He almost can’t hear the melody the man plays due to the pounding of his heartbeat in his ears. The music he plays is contrast greatly with what Tony’s emotions are right now. It’s a happy melody that doesn’t match the man.

The man is one who tried to kill him. The one who put him in the cave in the first place. The one who betrayed him.

Playing the piano is Obadiah Stane who is wearing the fakest smile Tony’s ever seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try and keep this fic with weekly updates or biweekly.
> 
> Instead of an outsider looking out Tony, this time it was Tony's view. More internal dialogue and thoughts, I hope that went well. Tony finally says something! Sorry if the summary of basically all the events was boring!
> 
> I'll reveal the future a little by little so look forward to that!
> 
> A few of you asked about the Past- Pepperony tag and pairings so I figured I'd clarify about the tag. The tag was there to let people know that Pepperony does exist in Tony's timeline. I'm undecided on whether I wasn't their relationship to be platonic or romantic. For the meantime, this fic will remain Gen and/or the relationships will not be the main focus.
> 
> I'll be referring to the element Tony creates as Starknanium, it's called Vibranium in the novelization of IM2 but I think that was wrong. Personally, I think it's more an element based on the Tesseract and acts as an energy source. And uh.. excuse my science bs please.
> 
> Like always, please leave a kudos if you haven't already if you liked this! it really makes me write faster. Any feedback/comments are appreciated! Since the MCU timeline is terrible if some events happen at wrong times just let me know, I'll go fix it.
> 
> up next: Obadiah and Yinsen


	3. Changing Tides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seeing his dead fiance and the man who tried to kill him isn't so good for Tony's mind. At least Pepper didn't order a hit on him. The suit gets completed and Tony is off to go blow up some people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thank-you to everyone supporting this fic so far!! it really makes me happy that people enjoy my fic!! 
> 
> Some Pepper content here too!!

_“Oh, Tony!” A booming voice calls him as he steps foot into the living room area. “I figured you were in the lab, so I brought some food. Jarvis said you were sleeping in your lab, but he wouldn’t let me down there.”_

_Tony looks at the man and freezes. His face pales. Panic begins brewing him and all of his relaxed body tenses. He grips his shirt tightly while trying to school his expression into one of neutral surprise. His knuckles turn white from gripping his shirt. His muscles tense and adrenaline roars through his veins as his body rears for a fight. Involuntarily he takes a step back. His mind is screaming danger and alarm bells blare in his head. His visions blues momentarily as he looks at the man who sits playing the piano. He almost can’t hear the melody the man plays due to the pounding of his heartbeat in his ears. The music he plays is contrast greatly with what Tony’s emotions are right now. It’s a happy melody that doesn’t match the man._

_The man is one who tried to kill him. The one who put him in the cave in the first place. The one who betrayed him._

_Playing the piano is Obadiah Stane who is wearing the fakest smile Tony’s ever seen._

-

“Hey, Obie.” The words scratch against his tongue as he says this. His voice is slightly strangled as he speaks. The piano music stops in a disharmonious mix of notes. The notes scratch his ears harshly. Stane looks at him and smiles with his eyes closed and gets up from the piano to walk towards him. Heavy footfalls thump against the marble floor and soon Stane stands in front of him. The man places a hand on Tony’s shoulder and shakes his shoulder slightly. It’s disguised as a friendly gesture but Tony knows what it means. It’s a subtle display of power. It’s a heavy weight on his shoulder and Tony resists the urge to shift away. It’s uncomfortable but he forces himself into a relaxed position. Tony casts a look at Stane’s hand and then up to the man's smiling face. Tony knows a fake persona when he sees one, after all , he’s been wearing one for years.

“Guess I scared you? Stane looks at him smiling but with a calculating look. “You tensed up the moment I called out to you! I swear you were gonna bolt the moment you saw me.” His hand still rests on Tony’s shoulder and it takes everything Tony has to no slap it off. He’s not supposed to know of his treachery yet, and he’s supposed to be friendly to the man who tried to kill him. Tony’s silent for a moment, he looks at the hand on his shoulder. Alarms blare in his head as he panics. His heartbeat thuds loudly in his head. The image of Stane above him removing the very thing that keeps him alive flashes in his eyelids. He shifts his gaze back to Stane’s face and bile begins rising in his throat. Stane’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Tony?” Stane’s eyes narrow at his eyes at him concerned. No, not concerned, suspicion. Tony’s face remains devoid of emotion as he tries to shut off his thoughts. It’s hard when they constantly hum in the back of his mind. Tony realizes with a jolt he’s been staring too long to be acceptable. “You okay?” Tony looks down at his hands that tremble slightly, then looks back at Stane’s face who stands way to close to him. Tony forces himself to let out a shuddering breath and takes deep breaths to try and calm himself.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” He finally says and shakes his head a bit and brings a hand up to his forehead. He pushes the hair out of his face and wipes the sweat off of his forehead. He takes a step back. He’d rather not have the man who tried to kill him be right up in his face. “I just didn’t sleep well.”

Stane looks at him studying him for a moment. His smile disappears as he looks at Tony. Tony in return forces a smile onto his face.

“That’s probably why you fell asleep in the workshop,” Stane laughs out cheerfully. He then turns and walks over to the coffee table were a box of pizza sits. “I brought some food.” Stane picks up the pizza box and holds it out to Tony. Tony cautiously walks over to the box and opens it.

“Go ahead and take a few.” Stane tells him. Tony grabs a slice and Stane then puts the box down on the table closing it. He sits on the couch. “You can eat while we talk.” Tony studies the man and his demeanor for a moment.

“About what?” He asks and sits down. He sits down in the arm chair that is much farther away from Stane. Plus, Stane can’t sit in that chair when he’s in it and Stane already chose his seat so he can’t move now. Stane looks at him with a curious glance and Tony just stuffs the slice of pizza into his mouth. He decides to cater to what Stane thinks of him and plays the role of ‘Immature kid’ who didn’t deserve the company.

“Well,” Stane leans towards him, which is quite ridiculous because Tony is a good five feet away from him, maybe more. A look of calmness is on Stane’s face. “How about we start with the weapons presentation for the Jericho Missile.” Tony remembers Stone probably paid a lot of money for him to be killed, well that’s his loss.

“And?” He asks with his voice muffled by the mouthful of pizza he was chewing. “What’s the big deal?” It comes out unintelligible.

Stane looks incredulously at him.

“What’s the big deal?” Stane asks in disbelief almost shouting at him. “Tony, this was a huge deal! The Jericho missile was the crown jewel of the Stark Industries freedom line. The crown jewel. All the profits we lost! Millions of dollars!” Stane brings his hands to launch his head.

“Yeah, I guess.” Tony looks at the table and away from Stane. “Millions of dollars, for millions of lives.” Stane takes an audible deep breath. His hands clutched his thighs as if trying to control his anger. Tony aggravates the man more by showing almost no reaction. 

“What are you, a hippie?” Stane asks him with disgust in his voice. Tony keeps his face a calculated blank. “You’re a weapons developer, not an environmentalist.”

Tony shrugs.

“I dunno, just doing some thinking.” He might be overplaying this persona, but it aggravates Stane.

“Why didn’t you go? Pepper didn’t tell us everything, she said it was you who didn’t say anything.” So Pepper didn’t tell them about his suspicions, which works in his favor.

“I had things to do.” He repeats the excuse he’s been telling everyone lately. He takes another bite of the pizza.

“More important than SI?” Stane gives him a look,”You can’t blow things off like this, Tony. Not like you usually do.” Wow, that comment stings. If he hadn’t known Stane was full of shit, that maybe would have hurt. Did Stane ever like Tony?

“It was about the wellbeing of SI,” Tony sits up and squares his shoulders. He looks Stane in the eye. “It’s more important than selling the Jericho and making yet another contract with the military. It’s better too.”

“I hope it is, for your sake.” Stane straightens his back. “What is this thing then?” Stane shifts into a more relaxed position better fit for a casual conversation. His eyes never leave Tony as he searches for something. Tony only replies by making his smile wider.

“I can’t tell you.” He says and also lets his demeanor turn. “It’s a secret for now, but when the time comes, I’ll be sure to tell you.” When he does tell Stane, he’ll be fired. He only needs to ind a little more evidence that points it at Stane. He can’t fire him on the spot and risk losing power in his company, he still needed to shut down weapons. Stane’s brows twist in confusion.

“Okay, Tony.” Stane sighs, “You can’t do this again, you have a company to run.”

“I guess..” Tony drawls off and takes another slice just to irk Stane. Maybe he shouldn’t have bought the pizza. Irritation is present on Stane’s face before it shifts into a more neutral expression.

“Tony if you keep acting like this,” Stane stands up from the couch and the couch shifts as he gets up. He walks over to Tony and invades his personal space. He once again, places his hand on Tony’s shoulder. Tony runs his eyes over Stane’s hand and then back to his face. “You won’t be able to escape without consequences.” A thinly veiled threat. Very subtle.

“No actions is without consequences.” He glares at the hand.

“When did you become so wise? Last I checked you were still a boy!” In Stane’s mind, he still is a boy. Stane steps away and lets out a hearty laugh, but like always they never reach his eyes.

“Maybe you just haven’t seen it.” He respond. Tony Puts his back against the chair as much as he possibly can. “You never know, Obie. I could hold the knowledge for a lot of things.” Stane raises an eyebrow at him but doesn't stop smiling.

The air is tense as they stare at each other. The opening of the front door startles them both. He hears the familiar click of Pepper’s heels as she walks in. He freezes again. _Don’t think of her dead body in a coffin._

“Oh well, that’s my cue.” Tony gets up quickly trying to avoid both people in the room. The one he loved, and the one who tried to kill him. A perfect mix if you ask him. Time to avoid them both because they both bring up memories he’s not very fond of. He picks the Pizza box off of the coffee table. Pepper gives him a weird look as their eyes meet. 

Pepper’s death is still fresh in his mind. He tried so hard to stop mourning and focus on the mission in the future, but he never did heal after losing her. He never gave himself time to cry, no one else did. They just expected him to be fine after the deaths of his pseudo son, his friend, his best friend, and his fiancee. He just might be a better actor than he thought to be. They might have cared, maybe the didn’t. Bile rises up as old memories float to the surface that he tried to forget. His chest begins to tighten and his breaths get cut short. He starts walking away quickly with the intention of forgetting the memories for now. It aches to think of them.

“Tony, where are you going?” Stane asks him getting up to try and stop him. Tony tears his eyes from Pepper and continues his trek to the lab. 

“Lab.” Only place where he can go to feel safe. 

“Tony?” she asks him. His back is turned so he can’t see Pepper.

“If you want to continue this conversation I’ll be in my lab.” He waves his hands as he hops down the stairs. Guess we'll just wash off in the sink.

“Jarvis doesn't let me in your lab.” Stane’s voice is slightly muffled by the stairs.

“That’s the point.” He yells back and enters the pin in the door. He steps for into the lab while holding the pizza box. It warms his hands.

Whatever Stane says in response is muffled by the closing door. Not like Tony cared anyway, he has pizza. Tony walks over to his desk with the computer and places the box down. He sits himself in the chair and grabs another slice and starts to eat it. He tries to breathe deeply and control the storm in his mind. It’s almost too easy for something to flip the switch that sends him into a panic. He looks at the timer once again.

Still about two hours left.

Might as well eat this pizza then. Then devote his time to search for even more evidence of under table dealing just to get rid of Stane. Disassembling the particle accelerator would also be beneficial. And to breathe. That’s a good idea.

He hears the door open he knows who it is. The little taps of heels on the concrete floor tell him of Pepper’s presence in the lab. He doesn’t turn to look at Pepper and keeps his eyes glued to the computer he was looking at. The clicking continues for a bit and then stops. From her silence Tony guesses that she’s looking at the mess he created in his lab.

He doesn’t want to look at her.

He can only imagine her thoughts. Pieces of concrete line the edges of the lab and in the center of it all is the particle accelerator. It probably doesn’t help that there’s a long burn mark in the wall. Pepper gasps. Looks like she found _that._ He resist the urge to snicker and instead just stuffs his mouth with the greasy slice of pizza again. Who knew pizza was such a good coping mechanism? Better than drinking his mind away. With a clear mind he can get stuff done at least. The downside is that he remembers everything. Though, if can get the upper-hand on Thanos by being prepared, just maybe, he can fix this mess. He takes another bite and savours the slice. 

It’s the first time he’s seen her in a few days. It’s only been about three since he came into the past and seeing her alive with him freshly in the past, was not something he was prepared for. He does his best not to turn his head as he hears her walk around the lab. The quiet taps of her heels against the floor as she walks around.

“Tony?” She asks him trying to capture his attention. He doesn’t turn. _Wow look at this amazing slice of pizza in his hand_. “What is this?”

A loud clanging noise erupts throughout the lab startling him. The sound of metal against metal scratches his ears painfully. He jumps slightly in his chair. Pepper lets out an undignified squeak as things clatter and fall to the floor. Tony puts the pizza down and slowly turns the chair to look at her. 

A box of tools lie open on the floor. It’s contents are sprawled across the floor in a mess. Above the mess stands Pepper. She’s startled and her face is one of slight panic. Her eyes are blown open and her mouth hangs open slightly. She looks at the fallen box of tools. Her shoulders are tense in surprise. Her expression is enough for him to burst out laughing. Her expression seems freezes even more as Tony laughs at her. It brings up old memories _Shut up brain._

It’s a sight to see Pepper frozen over a box of fallen tools. The usually serious woman started over a toolbox that fell to the floor. The woman’s blue eyes look at him as Tony laughs loudly. He tries to muffle his laughter by placing a hand over his mouth. It must be interesting to see them in situation, Tony laughing his ass off and Pepper standing there looking a him in bewilderment. Pepper has her hair drawn up a ponytail that resembles her future self. She wears her usual blazer-skirt combo with a pair of black heels. Blue eyes stare at him. 

“Sorry.” She says sheepishly. Tony laughs a little more but is able to calm himself down. 

“No big deal, Pep, they were probably going to fall over anyway.” He waves his hand at her in a reassuring gesture. “You okay though? The box seemed to startle you pretty badly.” the corners of his mouth turn up into a teasing grin. He rest a hand against his chin.

“It startled me, that’s all.” Pepper smiles at him and Tony lets out a low hum. “But in all seriousness, what is this?” She places her hand against one of the coils and runs her hand over it tenderly.

“That would be what you call a particle accelerator.” Tony replies and spins around in the chair a few times. “A small one though.”

“What for? Why? Why is this lab a mess? What have you been doing the past 3 days I left you alone.” Pepper begins to question him while Tony just watches her pace around looking at the mess he has yet to clean up. “Should I be surprised you didn’t accidentally kill yourself?”

“For our last question, the answer is yes.” He grins. “For first few, that’s a bit more complicated.” He hops up from his chair and moves to a drawer near his desk. He taps it a few times and it clicks open. Inside is the arc reactor. It’s more like a glowing blue disc right now. The glow lights up his clothes and hands. He turns it over a few times. Then he walks back to Pepper who stares at the object in curiosity. He holds out the reactor.

The glow illuminates her blue eyes making them shine even bluer. The reactor washes her face in a soft blue light. Her hands move slowly to the object. Her eyes look up to Tony asking him silently. Tony moves the reactor closer to her. 

“It’s okay to touch just don’t drop it.” He tells her gently. Pepper answers in a small smile and then moves to touch the glowing blue object in his hands. She touches it softly before taking it with her own. She cradles the blue disc with both hands and looks to Tony.

“What is this?” Her head turns and her ponytail swishes as she looks around the lab. 

“A miniature arc reactor.” Pepper’s eyes turn to look back at him. It may not be his Pepper but she is Pepper. “ A smaller version of the one in the factory.”

“Really? The one in the factory is so much larger.” She brings it closer and looks at the triangular pattern. Tony nods to respond to her question. “That doesn’t explain this though.” She motions on of her hands to the particle accelerator in the lab. He can tell she’s fixtaded on the laser beam scorch marks in the wall.

“That’s for the core of the reactor.” he begins to explain. “The original core is palladium, but this one,” He taps the top of the reactor currently in Pepper’s hands. “Is an entirely new element, I think I’m going to name it Starknanium. The best part is, it comes with the ability to produce infinite amounts of energy.” Pepper’s expression shifts into one of astonishment as she takes in his words. 

“You discovered this?” She asks in disbelief and her hands lower. The blue glow following it.

“My father did.” The word father feels like poison on his tongue. “He discovered it, I made it exist.”

“So this,” She turns to the coils. “Was just to make this?” Tony follows her eyes across the room. Her head pivots back to face him. “Infinite energy? Sounds like a sci-fi novel if I didn’t know you.” She smile sin a way that reminds him so much of his Pepper. His heart aches slightly. Her smile hurts him but he smiles back her.

“Doesn’t it?” He asks her and Pepper hands the glowing disc back to him carefully. Their hands touch for a moment. Her hand is warm. The touch is warm, but fleeting.

“Why did you make it though?” The reactor hums softly in his hand. Pepper stands in front of him now.

“For a bit of a personal project.” He holds the reactor and then glances in the direction of the timer that is still on his screen. 

“I assume you aren’t going to tell me just yet.” Pepper states but there’s no malic behind her words.

“No, not now at least.” Pepper seems to laugh at his words. He looks at her in mild confusion. “Why are you here?” He asks a maybe bit bluntly. Tone it down a bit. “I mean why did you visit me?” 

“You’re still CEO. You may be on a break but I still need that Signature.” Pepper says. He's glad she’s doing his job right now and not Stane. Bless Pepper. She didn’t hire a hit on him.

“Miss me that much do you?” Tony grins at her. “I bet you’ve gotten used to having me around to annoy you. You worry about me don’t you?” 

“Perhaps,” Pepper says back, “ I could just be worried about the welfare of the company.”

“Now why would you care?” He quips back still grinning from ear to ear.

“Don’t I work here? Of course I would care.” She laughs out. She places one of her hands on her hips while the other picks up a folder. “I hate job hunting.”

“And here I thought you were worried for me.” Tony says dramatically sighing. “I guess I should have known you only stayed my assistant for money and not my charming self.” Pepper lets out a laugh at Tony’s antics. It’s a lovely sound. Like the tinkling of a bell. Her smile is as beautiful as it always is. The way her face scrunches leaves a pang in Tony’s heart. Her face isn't sunken and grey. Her eyes sparkle in the reactors light and they're full of life. Her orange hair isn’t dull and it gleams in the light. She feels so different. But she is different. The smile on his face turns melancholic as Pepper laughs. Her eyes are closed so she doesn’t notice Tony’s shift in demeanor.

“You caught me.” She jokes back. Tony doesn’t exactly remember their relationship at this time to be anything more than professional but it’s feels wonderful to have another friend. He may not be able to tell her, he doesn’t want to guilt her into a relationship, but being around her makes him happy. “I just want your money.” She deadpans and Tony starts to snicker. They both laugh softly. “But to answer your question, I came to check up on you.” Pepper tells him. 

“Aww so you do worry.” He gushes in a dramatic voice. Pepper slaps his arm lightly causing Tony to giggle. 

“Well, I’ll just leave now.” She mock glares at him but her eyes shining with amusement betrays her.

“Oh now, Pep. Don’t be like that.” He grins at her. It’s easier not to think about her death when they talk. He does think, it’s always on his mind but joking around makes this whole thing just easier. It aches. It hurts him so much to know his Pepper is gone forever. Seeing this Pepper alive and well makes him feel just a bit better. “How was your birthday?” Tony asks her, "Was it a disaster like usual?" 

“It actually went well,” She says and Tony thinks of all the stories she told him of her terrible birthdays. “I went out and relaxed.” The conversation from there shifts to small talk. Tony’s eyes flicker to the timer more than a few times. They catch up about things and tell things about each other they don’t know about each other. Well, more so Tony tells her. He knows most things about Pepper, but she doesn’t know that.  
“You seem to be better.” Pepper says. “I was afraid to find you in a puddle of alcohol again. I was checking to see if you were alright because I didn’t hear from you for a while.” She tucks a nonexistent hair behind her ear. No one knows he’s been sober for years now. He came close but the kid’s face of disappointment would have been worse.

“I guess I am.” Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Perhaps he’s just gotten better at pretending. “I can handle myself fine.”

“You wouldn’t even be able to tie your shoelaces without me.” He thinks of the event only a day after he came back from captivity. 

“Slip-ons exist.” Pepper looks down at his shoes studying them for a moment.

His laces are untied.

“Oh would you look at that?” She says with a straight-face. “Your shoelaces, Mr. Stark.”

“Thankyou, Miss Potts for letting me know of this immediate problem.” They both chuckle.

“Are you sure you’re alright? Last time I saw you, you looked so tired.”

“I’m better.” He admits. It’s not a lie. Now that he’s told Jarvis it’s easier. Would he ever be okay? Not likely but he’s better. It’s easier to look at her without seeing her dead. Her eyes being full of life helps. A bit, not a lot , but a bit and that’s progress at least. “Not perfect but I’m making my way there.” 

“When I walked in the air seems to be tense. Did something happen?” 

“So you know..” He drawls off and looks at her blue eyes. A pang of sorrow traverses through him. He tries, but he can’t. He can’t subject her to that type of stress. He goes silent.

“I’m glad that you're feeling better at least.” She says giving him an out. “Tony just look after yourself, okay?”

“So if I don’t and hurt myself..” He looks at her and smirks trying to relive the air of some of it’s tension. “You’d be out of a job.”

“Yes, and I care about you okay?” She holds out the folder she was picked up earlier. “Also, can you sign these please.”

“Anything for you, Pepper.”

-

A couple of packets and piles of signed papers later, there’s only about 30 minutes of time left. Tony looks at the timer. His eyelids begin to drop and gets up to grab a cup of coffee.

“Is Stane still here?” He grumbles out not wanting to run into him again. 

“Obadiah Stane and Pepper Potts are no longer in the mansion.” Jarvis says and Topy lets out a breath of relief and tension uncoils from his chest. He gets up from his desk he was sitting in. He shakes his hand to ease the soreness. As he walks over to the lab door he stretches his back and arms. A sigh escapes from his mouth and his back makes a satisfied popping noise. He lets out a puff of air as he release the stretch and opens the lab ddo once again and walks up the stairs. This time with no interruptions as he walks alone in his large mansion. He probably should set up shop again in new york. California is great and all, but he misses new york a bit. Maybe not the weather but it was nice there.

“Jarvis, I’m going to go wash off some of this grime. Don’t let any visitors in.”

“Of course sir, enjoy your shower.”

“Will do.”

He gets up to his room and strips himself of his sweaty clothes. He steps under the shower and turn it on. Tony stands there enjoying the heat from the shower. The steam rises and the water scalds his skin but he doesn’t care. His skin burns bright red from the heat and his water stopped hair falls against his face. There’s no prickling numbness in his fingertips from the frostbite. There’s no pangs in his chest from the reactor. No hum of the reactor either. The only sound he can hear is the sound of water drumming against his body. The thoughts never go away fro good but they significantly quiet while he stands there in neither bliss or pain. He stands in the shower for a while just to let the water run down his face.

It’s more than ten minutes later when he turn the knob off. The water screeches to a stop and he steps out. He wraps his body with a fluffy towel. He turns and sees himself in the mirror. He looks younger. There’s a lot less wrinkles on his face, though his eyebags still remain under his eyes. There’s almost no scars. He doesn’t have a scar were there was once a gaping hole in his chest. The reactor hasn’t been lodged into his chest. He was never blown up with his own bomb. A lot of things happened in the ten years in the future. Chances are they’d never happen again. Essentially, he’s sailing a boat into uncharted water and his knowledge can only get him so far. At some point his limited foresight into the future will run out as new events and dangers arise. He’s not sure how’ll he’ll react when that happens but it’s best to focus on the task at hand.

He dries himself off with the fluffy towel. It almost feels like velvet. He starts dressing himself but this time with more care than a random shirt and pants. He puts on his undersuit. A tight shirt and an equally tight pair of pants. They both have orange and blue lines running down the seams of it. It’s a bit of a struggle to put on because of how tight it is, but it’s easier to move in it. Less chance of snagging on something. Also less chance of overheating because of how it’s designed to keep out as much heat as he possibly can. He pulls on a black hoodie to complete the look. He puts on a pair of socks with grips and then walks down the stairs. He walks through his empty mansion.

He stops to look at the ocean outside and taking in the view. The moon, half full, shines on the ocean waves and city lights reflect on the ocean. It’s pretty. The view leaves him with a feeling of calmness and he continues back down to his lab. He opens the door and walks in straight to the area where he parks his cars. Dum-E and U both beep a hello at him and he waves to the bots. 

“Welcome back sir.” Jarvis greets him once he opens the lab door.

“I don’t get why you greeted me when I got back into the lab. Aren’t you everywhere?” Tony looks at the timer. The timer is at zero.

“I believe it has a greater effect this way.” Tony lets out a puff of amusement at Jarvis’s words. “The suit is done. A few test should be done before flight.”

Tony hums slightly and walks up to the gray platform in the lab and motions to Jarvis.

“Bring it out.”

The panels in the floor rise and move out of the way as they make way for the red and gold suit. The suit rises almost dramatically in front of tony. The metal shines in the light. Tony makes his way over to his desk and picks up the reactor. He walks up to the Ironman suit and carefully lifts the chest outer armor panel. Then he opens the compartment for the reactor and slots it in. He closes it carefully and then places the chest piece back in. He steps up and watches the suit turn on and a blue light starts to spread throughout the suit. The soft humming becomes louder and a startup noise is heard as it turns on. The reactor light flickers for a moment and then dims before turning brighter than before. The suit is the model that opens up and allows him to walk into it instead of having the pieces placed onto him. The nano-tech suit would be helpful but it’s not something he can make in a span of a few days.

He looks at the suit with satisfaction. He flicks his hand in a motion to open the suit. The suit opens from the back and Tony looks at it’s unfurled form for a moment before walking around and placing each foot into the boot of the suit. The familiar embrace of the metal cocoon envelope him. The suit closes around him with several small clicking noises. It soon feels like a second skin. The interface is dark for a second and then lights up and shows his lab surroundings. The scanners begin to start taking in everything. 

“Jarvis, run diagnostics.” He lifts his hand and it easily moves with him. A bit harder than usual but he’s used to having muscle mass. He’s loft over ten years of workouts that he’d probably need to get back. The suit was a killer for the abs so he probably need to do crunches again. The automated system kicks in and it soon feels like it’s him moving it completely. The panels start whirring as they shift checking that everything is in working order. The metal pieces pivot and move around him, then they stop leaving him with only the hum of the reactor.

“Diagnostic complete. Everything appears to be in working order.”

“Alright, start up the thrusters.” He says getting into launch position.  
“Would that be wise? Multiple tests are needed before flight.”

“Sometimes you have to run before you walk.” Tony tells the AI. Jarvis probably sighs.

“Initiating thrusters.” Soon the hum of the thrusters blare in his ears as they start up.

They shoot him up into the air. Almost too fast but Tony manages to save himself and manunvers himself out of the garage and into the sky. He laughs as he rises higher into the night. The elevation counter rising with each second. The feeling of weightlessness surges through his system. He spins a few times in the sky enjoying the feeling. Hearing the wind whistle around his is exhilarating. He soars along the coast looking at the city lit up by light below him.

He forgot what an amazing feeling it was just to fly. Not having to fight any aliens, just enjoying the sky. Surprisingly, it doesn’t bring up too many horrid memories. The feeling of the air flowing around his body makes him just want to stay in the air for forever. He turns to fly closer to the coast. He’s still high in the air as he looks at the town below him. The night city is illuminated by millions of lights. He looks around testing the zoom function and to just admire the sight. As he twirls through the sky a constant line on his interface tells him were the horizon stays on his screen.

Once he flies in testing the functions of his suits he rockets away from the city and sets off to fly across the ocean. A more safer route than flying over miles of civilian cities.

“Jarvis set course for Gulmira, Afghanistan.” He tells Jarvis. The cave was most likely not far from the town. Jarvis calculates the route.

“You should arrive in about 5 sit, if you keep this pace.” He can’t go to fast without risking some parts breaking down over time. 

“Anyway we can shave that down a few hours?” He asks while maintaining a streamline position while flying over the ocean. The sun has gone down long ago, but when he reaches his destination it’ll be day.

“Unlikely, you’d have to maintain a high speed for a long time. Which may prove to be dangerous as we don’t know the full parameters of the suit.” tony frowns slightly at the timer once again. Some areas he would have to avoid so he doesn’t risk detection. He doesn’t need a repeat of what happened last time. He sours at the thought of the two jets that chased him down in the past. Or future? Time travel is confusing.

“Well strap in for the ride then.”

-

He shoots across the sky. He flies until the only thing he can see is the ocean. He flies low to avoid detection by any militaries. He takes in the view of the night sky and the stars twinkling in the murky blue. Not every star is visible but more visible than it would be in the city. Tony leaves a thin trail of contrails in the sky as he spins through the sky. It’s a addicting feeling to fly in the air with full control. Flying had always been soothing for him and he enjoys it. The suit flies over the ocean and the sky begins to get brighter and brighter with each mile as he crosses the ocean. The night sky soon turns to day. He soars across fields of crops with workers working diligently. He flies over cities full of bustling people and non stop movement. Over and sometimes around mountains. Across desserts and thousands of trees. He looks at each place from a birds eye view. He passes over them quickly at the speed he goes at so most of them are a blur. 

It’s a few hours later when Jarvis tells him he’s nearing his location. The ground around him has turned into a dusty tan and shrubs line the ground. Not many trees, they are few and far in between. It’s day and the sun shines down on him. Tony takes in the landscape and finds a spot to safely land. He scans the town looking for any threats, when he finds none he flies over and out of the town. He lands outside of the town and settles into a area where he can’t be seen easily. He pulls up satellite feed of the surrounding areas and looks around. He narrows the location down to a few spots. Jarvis is able to narrow it down to one after taking in Tony’s stories. When he looks at it in greater detail he remembers. It almost stirs him into a panic but it’s not the place for that. Jarvis places a marker on the area.

He steps out of his hiding spot and turns the thrusters on and zooms across the sky. He stays low to the ground leaving a trail of dust. It’d be bad to have the attention of US military and have his plan foiled. It’s only a few miles away from gulmira. He’ll likely be spotted because who wouldn’t look at the man flying in a hot rod red tincan. He doubts that he’ll have the element of surprise on his hand, so why not just attack? He gets into close proximity of the camp and encounters a truck. The truck drives quickly through the dusty landscape. It has a back covered in cloth. He moves himself to fly right next to the truck. Two men sit in the front, both of them holding guns. He has Jarvis run a scan, it’s his guns. They aren’t Military he finds out by scanning their faces. 

When he’s been noticed one of them swerves the car to a stop. Leaving a cloud of dust behind them as they turn sharply. The truck rises onto its side before thumping back down and making a loud noise as it does so. Tony who had been going at the speed of the truck also has to stop. He raises his hands in front of him holding his forward momentum and turns to go back to the truck. The men inside the truck yell languages he can’t understand-he doesn’t care anyway. He does have the ability to translate it but it wouldn’t be worth the effort. He does a sharp turn and the sound of the truck starting again enters his ears. The truck starts moving again. Tony quickly speeds up and catches up. One of the men raises their gun aiming at his head as Tony follows beside them. The man shoots and the sound of gunshot rings throughout his ears. Thankfully, Jarvis dims the noise the moment it occurred. It hits him in the ear, it doesn’t feel like anything. In return Tony raises his metal coated arm and shoots a blast aimed at the mans face.

The man collapses against the dashboard while the one driving screams in terror. The man driving the truck tries to swerve again but Tony’s faster and slams his body into the side of the truck. The sound of metal scratching against each other is heard and white sparks fly into the sky. The force of the bodyslam and the truck turning at the same tip makes it tip over. It screeches against the ground lifting clouds of dust in its wake. When it stops a small cloud of dust is in the air. Tony glides over to the truck and looks inside. He places his hands on the passenger door. The man who shot a bullet at him is slumped over to the side. The man driving the truck looks at him and screams.

“Boo.” he raises his repulsor and lets out a beam that hits the man in the chest. He falls unconscious. Tony opens the door, more like rips the door off and pulls the men out from the truck. He dumps them somewhere in a pile of pushes and destroys their guns. 

There was only two in the truck and once they were dealt with he begins flying to the base. He flies over the base and hides behind one of the mountains that encase the base. People walk out and about, most of them holding guns. A lot of the areas have canopies disgusting the camp from above. Large chunks of rocks line the cap. He lands himself near the top of one of the hills out of view. He looks and starts identifying crates that have the labels SI on them. 

“Jarvis, tag the crates, terrorists, and anything else you deem important.” He tells Jarvis and tags start appearing on the interface point out important objects. They’re color coded and a few seconds later everything is tagged. “We’re gonna blow it all up.”

“Counting over 50 people in this area, some may be captive civilians.” Jarvis informs him. A small picture appears in front of him large then becomes small and goes into the corner. “Terrorist group, the Ten Rings confirmed. Their leader is right there.” A picture of the man pops up next to the scan picture of the man then minimize and the man gets tagged with a circle in red. More photo’s pop up as Jarvis runs facial checks on people. All the photos fold into a neat pile like the folder icon and disappears. “Notable targets have been marked in orange and red. Scanning of the outside area complete, once we reach the inside area I would suggest doing another scan.”

“Let’s go.” He fires his rockets on and lands in the middle of the camp. People stare at him for a moment and Tony raises one of his hands and hits one of the men straight in the chest. That seemed to snap everyone out of their trance. Guns start firing at him and Tony turns to blast one of them. The metal suit pivots with him making metallic clicking noise and the repulsors charges up and he fires. Blast after blast, gunshot after gunshot. Chaos ensues as he continues to fire and move around camp. Men yelling languages he can’t understand. Bullets ricocheting off his suit with small pings. Gunshots fire around him loudly. Tony lets out a grunt when a bullets hit his helmet in the right way that it’s probably going to leave a bruise. His suits is bullet proof but bullets still hurt. 

He walks through the storm of bullets and avoids as many as he can. He fires his repulsors making multiple men fall to the ground. The air smells of ash and iron. Dust rises in the air fogging up his view. Tony raises his repulsor and makes a crate explode. Tony fires the thrusters on and zips around the small area. He fires each blast with precision and markers start disappearing due to him hitting them or them running to take refuge in the cave. The high alert marker of the leader disappears and Tony decides it’s best to follow him.

He clears most of the people out of the camp and it’s eerily quiet except for the wind blowing the dust and the metal whirring of his suit. He lands on the ground and starts walking towards the entrance of the cave. Each step leaves a heavy print int the dusty ground. The dust blows around him. He enters the cave which is much darker than the baking sun of day. The cave is damp and Jarvis automatically starts scanning the area as much as he can. Lights line the cave. It’s a bit quiet, maybe too quiet. No matter, he keeps walking through the cave.

How many steps was it again?

_41 steps straight ahead, 16 steps from the door. Fork right. 33 steps then turn right._

Hang on Yinsen, he’s so close.

He walks the steps that he repeated like a mantra in his hand as he escaped the cave. Step after step. Each footfall echoes loudly in the cave and he looks around.

“Sir, a large group of people are gathering at the entrance.” Jarvis informs him.

“We’ll blast em later.” He says nonchalantly and opens a metal door with little force and finds two men holding their guns up and aiming at him. They take in his metal suit and bullet marks. The shock is audible on both of their faces as terror sets in. Tony just walks up to them. The start firing their guns at him, a bad idea in an enclosed space really. The bullet ricochets off of Tony then to the the wall and hits one of the men in the shoulder. The other still fires and tony just keeps backing up and hits the wall. Tony just raises his hand menacingly and charges the repulsor and fires. The wall the man had backed up to was actually the metal door that held him captive. He looks at it and bile rises in his throat burning his tongue. The world seems to fade away for a moment. He nearly loses his balance and braces his arm on the door. He’s almost lost in his mind until Jarvis says something. He doesn’t hear it but he knows Jarvis said something

“You said something?” he asks Jarvis to repeat whatever he said. He runs his metal masked hand over his mask. He focuses on trying to get air in his lungs and it feels as if he’s choking.

“Sire, scans show that there is one person currently in this room.” _Yinsen?_ Only one way to find out. Thoughts swirl in his mand as her forces a damper over them and focus on the door that leans against. He raises his hand into a fist and pulls back. He swings with his body making impact with the wall. A large bang is heard. It makes audible groan as metal shifts with the force of the punch. The door squeaks loudly as it protests. A sizable dent is in the loor and this time he brings up his leg for a kick. It makes impact and the door shutters for a moment before falling off the wall and revealing the cell within.

It’s pretty much as he remembered. The one post with the mirror on it. The disgusting cots. There’s no furnace and any equipment he had set up in there, but that’s to be expected.

He directs his eyes to look in the middle of the cave, a single man stands there. He’s wary. The man wears a pair of glasses and a dirty set of clothes. It’s Yinsen. Relief floods through him and the tension that was rising in his chest uncoils as he lets out a breath. He looks at the familiar man. He resists the urge to collapse onto his knees and sob right there. He looks at the man who without him, Tony probably would have died in that cave as the merchant of death.

_Don’t waste your life, Stark_

His chest constricts as he looks at the fimilliar man. Now is not the time for emotions, right now he needs to get Yinsen out of here. Yinsen stares at him unsure of what to do, Tony steps closer to the man. The man quickly gets up and stands straighter and raises his hand up in the sign of surrender. His face is confused and stares at the suit in mild awe and terror. He starts to say something in one language, when Tony doesn’t respond he tries again in another. It’s a wonder to hear his voice again, it’s gotten muddled over the years after the Afghanistan and he’s always felt guilty for that. Without Yinsen, he doubts Ironman would exist. How many things would have existed if he never survived?

Tony realizes how silent he’s been and speaks.

“Ho Yinsen?” his voice comes out much deeper and metallic due to his voice modulator. “Good to meet you again, though I wish it was under better circumstances.” He tries his best to sound friendly and not pose as a menacing robot made of metal. Yinsen gives him an odd look and slowly lowers his hands from their position but his eyes never leave Tony. His eyes flicker to the blueing core of the suit and then to the faceplate. Each movement is slow as if he’s trying not to anger him by moving in the wrong way.

“Who are you?” Yinsen asks him. His eyes still look directly at him. He takes a step back and his leg hits the back of the cot. His eyes look down to the cot for a moment and then looks back to Tony.

“Now’s not the time for that, we can do introductions later.” As if on cue the thud of footsteps echo through the cave they get increasingly louder with each second. This time, he wouldn’t make the mistake that got Yinsen killed. “Right now, I need to get you out of here?” He turns his body in the direction of the door and looks back at Yinsen. “Is there anyone else being held captive?”

Yinsen looks troubled. “None of which are alive, as far as I know, I’m the only captive currently alive.” Tony nods at his statement. The man is still wary of him which is a reasonable decision. “Earlier they..” The sound of yelling interrupts Yinsen as he lifts his head to look in the direction of the door. Tony turns his focus back to the door. The yelling gets louder and a few men carrying guns pop into view. The moment they do Tony reacts quickly and charges his repulsors hitting one after the other until they all collapse to the ground. He shakes his hand. Tony turns to look at Yinsen and motions him to follow him.

“Follow and stay behind me.” He tells Yinsen who looks at his suit in wonder. They both start walking through the cave and Tony repeats the steps in his head. Yinsen leans down to pick up a gun from one of the men lying on the floor. Tony doesn’t comment on it and instead the both keep walking. The walk is short and quiet. When they both reach the entrance were sunlight beams in a herd of people stand at the mouth of the cave all holding their guns. They aim at the golden and red suit of armor. Raza yells and they fire. A storm of bullets over takes Tony again.

“Get back!” He yells at Yinsen who retreats behind the wall safely. He’s pelted with bullets and a few will definitely leave bruises. He fires his repulser in return in repeated movements. Tony signals for his shoulder missiles to come out and they target the terrorists. They hit a few of them and blow up. Multiple explosions occur. While that happens he runs over to Raza and punches him in the face knocking him out cold. It’s almost laughable how easy it is to take them all out. He grabs a few metal bars and bend them around their hands just to be safe. The fight is over in a matter of seconds. His guns do no damage to Tony’s suit. 

Yinsen warrily steps back out to finds him tying up the leader Raza. Yinsen looks around everything with careful eyes then back to Tony.

“Where are you taking me?” Yinsen dares to ask looking at the scene around him. His eyes squint at the sunlight that shine sin from the mouth of the cave.

“Where do you want go?” Tony asks looking at the man. Yinsen still hold the gun but it hands in his arms. 

“My village, Gulmira.” 

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Tony saves Yinsen! They'll have more interaction next chapter. I hopes you guys like the bit with Pepper, I'm not entirely sure how well I portray the characters but she's fun to write. Stane is even harder to write. So will Yinsen because the guy wasn't' in the film for a super long time.
> 
> Sorry this is like a day late. I wasn't able to start the draft bit till later in the week. This was supposed to be longer but I decided to cut it short because of the really long length.
> 
> Anyway! thank you for reading so far! If you find any mistakes/ have feedback/ tips don't hesitate to comment, I'm trying to become a better writer so anything is a appreciated! MCU timeline is also trash so please let me know if any dates are wrong. Also don't forget to leave a kudos or comment, they all really make my day!
> 
> up next: clockwork!


	4. Gears That Make Up the Clockwork

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yinsen gets set free. Jarvis is a saint. Dummy is a disgrace(Tony loves him anyway).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this so late! I couldn't find time to finish this and proofread this! That being said there might be some mistakes but hopefully less than usual. 
> 
> Thank you for reading so far!

_“Where do you want to go?” Tony asks Yinsen._

_“My village Gulmira.”_

-

“Alright, follow me. I don’t want you to get injured.” Tony tells him and motions him to follow. Yinsen looks at him in light disbelief for a moment. His eyes narrow.

“Wait, you’re really going to take me there. Tony walks out of the cave past the body’s that lie on the floor. Yinsen seems to be even more wary of the suit.

“Of course? Why would I go through all that to not get you back? Why would I even ask?” Tony looks at the surrounding area. “I have to blow this camp up before the military arrives.”

“So you’re not with the military?”

“Nope!” He says popping the p. He smiles in the helmet of the suit. “There’s no way I’m handing this over to the military to mass produce.”

Yinsen looks outside and squints at the sunlight. It’s most likely been a long time since Yinsen has stepped out in sunlight.

“First, you should get a safe distance away. No need to be impaled by shrapnel or debris.” Tony looks around for a moment before spotting a truck tucked away. “Use that truck right there.”

“The truck?” Yinsen asks him. “I don’t have the keys for it.”

“Catch.” Tony pulls out a small metal brick looking object and tosses it at Yinsen who catches it with ease. “Use this for the keys. Take the truck and drive a safe distance of about. “Tony looks around for a moment. “A few miles. I’ll give you a minute or two before I start blasting the place. The U.S military is probably on their way anyway so better make this quick.

Yinsen looks at the object in his hands. IT’s a small red rectangular with accents of gold on it. In the edge on one of the sides, there’s a glowing blue dot. 

“Keep it on you, I’ll meet you again with this.” Tony tells Yinsen. Yinsen nods.

“What are you?”

“I’m just a man in a can.” tony laughs out slightly. He says this a lot more happily than the first time he uttered the words to Pepper. It’s a bittersweet saying. Yinsen’s mouth turns slightly up in a smile.

“I’ll trust your instructions.” Yinsen says and his voice is a bit wary. They both walk over to the truck. It’s a white truck that’s covered in dust. It only has one section and the back part of it has a canopy over it. Yinsen walks up to the door and pulls it open. It’s unlocked and there’s no one in the truck; he already had Jarvis make a scan of the area. Tony looks around before walking over to an object, a gun. He picks it up and looks at it for a moment. He hands it to Yinsen who looks at the weapon with clouded over eyes before accepting it.

“For emergencies.” he tells Yinsen who just nods slightly.

“So how do I get this to work?” He holds out the flat rectangular device. 

“Just put it by the key slot.” Yinsen places the gun against the passenger seat and walks over to the other side and opens the door. He gets in and places his hand on the leather of the steering wheel. He closes the driver’s door. The man then takes the rectangular devices and presses it against the key slot and turns the device. The engine lets out a large whirring noise before settling into a purr. 

“That’s quite a handy device.”

“Of course it is.” He says but the tone of his voice makes it evident he’s joking. “You should get going though.” the man nods.

“I’m not entirely sure what direction to go, but there are landmarks to follow.” Yinsen says and leans over to close the passenger door. Yinsen gives him a nod before pressing down on the gas pedal and driving off. He winds through the camp and makes it out. The vehicle gets increasing faster and then it’s just a little dot on the horizon. Tony looks at the GPS in his interface tracking the device and wait for Jarvis’s signal. 

“Sire, Ho Yinsen is a safe distance away.” 

“Good, let’s blast this place.” 

He fires the repulsors on launches into the sky. He feels the sudden force of uplifting before it mellows out as he slows his upward descent into the sky. His above the camp with a birds-eye view and looks around for a few moments before letting out a single beam of energy. His hand vibrates slightly with the power he releases from his hand. The repulsor whirs and releases the beam that lights up the sunlit sky. The beam hits the target, a pile of crates and he moves his hand to lead the beam across the camp. Explosions follow the blue beam and rocks fly in all directions. A few even making it close to his position in the sky. He can hear loud booms as the sound waves reach him. He shuts the beam off after a few seconds to prevent overheating. It whirrs off then he turns it back on and repeats. Dust floats in the sky in a gigantic swirling cloud of dust. He hit’s a missile launcher just right and the place lights up in a brilliant spectacle of light from explosions and fragments of rocks.

He descends carefully down into the camp and zips around the camp shooting short blast from each hand. He swerves and twirls low to the ground avoiding obstacles. Tony flies through a cloud of dust that momentarily blocked his vision before his speed makes the cloud dissipate. Blast after blast and the camp is alight in fire. The fragments created from explosions boo into the sky creating a firework effect.

Dust covers his cameras and to regain imagery he shoots up into the sky. He zooms quickly and looks around. Black smoke floats from the burning camp. His interface has millions of things going on that his eyes flicker to taking in all the information and running calculations in his head. Fire rages inside the camp in a vibrant mixture of yellows and reds. He glances at the tracker for Yinsen’s car. It’s stopped so Tony does a nosedive. Air whooshes through his mic and his heart pounds from exhilaration. He pulls out of the dive and soars easily low to the ground. He steers himself towards the directions of the tracker. The white dot on the horizon grows until he can identify it as the truck. The truck is stopped. 

He makes it to the truck and slows himself to a stop by putting his hands out in front of him. He hovers over to the driver side of the truck. Tony looks at Yinsen who is looking at the remains of the giant explosion. His glasses reflect the rising smoke from the explosion. His eyes shift to Tony looking at the suit and the explosion is mild astonishment. Tony drops to the ground with a soft thud.

“Let’s get you back now.” Tony says to Yinsen.

“Are you coming with?” Yinsen asks. The man’s hands run over the steering wheel while looking at Tony.

“If you’d be okay with that. I’d prefer if you make it back safe.” Yinsen nods.

“If you are joining me; I think it would be more subtle if you are in the truck instead of flying.” Yinsen says jokingly and lets out a small huff of laughter. “Your suit of armor is not very subtle.”

“Hot-rod red is very subtle, excuse you.” Tony can’t resist the urge to snark back. “I would say it’s even more subtle than a full-on gold suit of armor. You’d be surprised at how just gold screams narcissistic . So I went with the subtle route.”

“That being hot-rod red? I wasn’t aware a bright red was… subtle.” Yinsen laughs. “You’re right I suppose. In all seriousness, get it. It’s best we hurry and don't run into anyone else.”

“I second that.” Tony says and walks over to the other side. His suit leaves crisp footprints in the dirt due to the weight of the suit. He opens the passenger door and is careful not to use too much force. He doesn’t want to rip the door clean off the truck. He hops into the car and sits on the worn down leather seat. The truck smells faintly of smoke and gunpowder. Everything seems to have a thin layer of dust. He runs his armored hands over the dashboard and looks at his red and gold fingertips that are covered slightly in dust. In the light of day Yinsen looks much more different than in the dim light of the cave. It might be Tony imagining it but he seems to have a little more life in his eyes. Yinsen glances at him briefly before turning his stare back to the landscape in front of them.

“Let’s get going, Gulmira isn’t too far.” He points to the mountains in front of them. “I’m starting to recognize the area.”

Tony lets out hum to acknowledge what Yinsen says but he isn’t sure if it made it past his vocal filter. They sit in silence as they drive back to the village. It would be faster to fly but right now Tony doesn’t want to get caught and put Yinsen in harm. The scenery they pass is a vast landscape of dusty dirt and scarce shrubs. The shrubs aren’t a bright green and more on the muted side of things. Small mountains and hills line the horizon as they travel across the land leaving a cloud of dust behind them. The truck bumps slightly over the uneven ground and rocks slightly. The town begins to move into view and Yinsens eye flicker to him for a moment.

“Sir, the U.S military is currently investigating the camp. They have sent a few choppers and planning to send troops to investigate it. ” Jarvis tells him. He had placed bugs into the servers after hacking into them earlier. IT was easy. When you have years of technological knowledge it’s easy because everything is laughably out of date in his eyes. It’ll be a while before they’re discovered and they won’t be able to trace it back to him anyway. It’s not like he’s stealing nuclear launch codes. 

Tony looks at Yinsen, he can’t hear Jarvis. Yinsen seems to notice his sudden distress.

“There’s a cloth blanket by your foot. You might want to use that to cover the metal…” He pauses thinking of what to call him. “You’re a human right?”

“Well I’m no weird space god or super-soldier, so yes.” Tony says and taps his faceplate. “I’m flesh and bones underneath the metal exoskeleton. No need to worry; I’m not a robot. Though I do look like one.”

“Use the blanket to cover your robotic features then. If you want to maintain a discreet profile.” Yinsen tells him without looking at him and keeping his eyes trained on the road. “As you said earlier, I doubt you want to get discovered by the military.”

He pulls the blanket out. It’s a poorly made woolen blanket. Probably really scratchy but he can’t really feel it with his hands being armored. It won’t hide much but it’s much more disguise worthy than a golden suit of armor.

“Thanks.”  
He pulled the blanket over his head. It obscures his vision a little but thankfully due to its poor conditions he could still see through it.

“Your welcome. We don’t want to cause a scene with your very _discreet_ color scheme.” Yinsen lets out a soft chuckle. “I’d invest in a less eye-bleeding color scheme for a stealth mission.”

“Who says this is a stealth mission?”

“It isn’t? Good, because if it was I’d have to dock a few points off.”

TOny lets out a small laugh. They approach the village and the smile on Yinsen’s face slips off his face to focus on the road. Yinsen reaches the entrance of the town or outskirts and drives through. Yinsen’s seems to take in familiarity in the town. He winds through the roads with ease. With each turn Yinsen’s face turns from happy to sorrow until settling into a bittersweet mix of both. The houses seem worse for wear and holes litter parts of buildings from the bombing attacks. People walk through the streets under the sweltering sun. The sun seems to make the dirt caked roads glow in the light. There’s an underlying tension of all the inhabitants in the village. Tony just looks and looks over the town. Yinsen turns the truck through a couple of roads and stops behind an alley.

Yinsen’s hands clutch the steering wheel and his eyes become misty with emotion. He looks lost for a moment before starting at a damaged house. The house was once a nice house but the hole in the second floor and the debris that surrounds it makes its condition much harsher. Tony looks at Yinsen whose eyes shine with unshed tears.

“My house is just a few paces down. I don't want to park it outside of my house. This road is pretty deserted usually, but it’s also been about a few months since I have been here. So let's just hurry.”

“ Yinsen?” Tony asks the man. Yinsen flinches slightly and shakes his head lightly as if to clear away thoughts. The man glances at him and just unlocked the truck and turns it off. “You alright?”

“I’m fine. The entrance is right there. Hurry in, the fewer people that see you the better.” Yinsen takes the device out and then truck shuts off and the constant rumbling purr gets cut off. He opens the door and the man with glasses steps out of the truck. “I don’t think there’s anyone in here. Feel free to come in if you’d like. I can make a cup of tea, assuming you can drink tea based on the fact you said you were flesh.”

“Last I checked I have all the major organs in the digestive system.” Tony follows Yinsen and shrugs the blanket off his head to leave it in the truck. He scans the house quickly and no one is in there, thankfully.

“I don’t have my keys but my spares should be here. There is a big hole on the roof though.” Yinsen looks around fo for a little bit then turns to Tony. “Will this work for my door?” 

“Probably.” Yinsen then presses it gently against the lock and turns and the lock clicks open. Yinsen quickly walks inside. Yinsen looks around warily for a few moments and then motions back to Tony.

He steps into the house. Yinsen stands in the kitchen of the house looking around. The house is homely and it looks lived in. That is it would be if things weren’t so shattered on the floor making a mess of glass, rock, and even parts of the wall. A photo captures Tony’s attention. It’s burned slightly at the edges and a few splotches of stains line the image. A large stain is present in the corner. He kneels down to pick up the photograph and the metal pivots in his suit whirs slightly with his movement. Yinsen notices his movement and looks at him. He notices the photograph in Tony’s hand and walks over to him. The footsteps making noise as he walks across the wooden boards of the floor. Tony lowers the photograph and angles it so Yinsen can see it. Yinsen looks at the photograph and his eyes get clouded over again. Tony knows the pain that Yinsen feels. The loss of a child.

He thinks of Peter. His kid. The bright and easily excitable teenager who was just looking to prove himself in the world. He’ll never see his Peter again, or anyone he knew for that matter. He’s alive but it’s not his Peter. It’s bittersweet to think about it. It’s not the right time to think about Peter though.

“Ah, I can’t believe that survived.” Yinsen says tearing up. He looks around searching for more. “That’s my family.”

“Your family?”

“Yes… They were killed when I was taken captive.” yinsen says. His voice gets slightly choked with emotion. He swallows thickly.

“I’m sorry.” Yinsen looks at Tony weirdly when he says this. 

“There is no need to be. I was going to see them again soon, that is until you saved me.”

Tony is silent and for once, at a loss for words. He looks at the photograph in his hands.

It’s a happy family photo. Yinsen Isn't in it; most likely taking the photo himself. They’re in a nice park with green trees and grass. A young girl with a lavender beach hat stands in the middle of the photo. She’s smiling brightly and her hair flails around a bit in the photo. She’s waving her hands in the air and her eyes are closed. Next to her is a younger boy holding an icecream cone with an equally joyful face. A woman stands behind them both. Their mother probably. She has her hand on each of their shoulders and her smile is a tired, but a happy one. The sunlight shines brightly illuminating their faces and clothes. 

“I remember that time. This was our family vacation a year ago.”  
“Toni?” Tony asks Yinsen.

“My daughter, her name is actually Antonia, but she insisted on going by Toni. She was an incredibly bright girl. Always wanting to learn, the best of her class. Her future was bright but she…” Yinsen trials off no longer wanting to continue the sentence. His eyes water. “That’s my wife and my son.”

Yinsen takes a moment to calm himself down and Tony hands the photo to him. Yinsen runs his fingers over his family faces.

“Feel free to take a seat. I’ll go make us some tea, unless you have some preference?” Yinsen asks him.

“Anything is fine.” Yinsen nods and walks back into the kitchen area. 

Tony doesn't sit down at the wooden table that sits in the middle of the room. He looks around at the room. Sunlight streams through the window where a tattered curtain hangs from. The sunlight illuminates the floating dust. He hears a couple of clicks and clunks of cups clinking together and cabinets closing. Yinsen walks back into the room a few minutes later holding a tray with two cups.

“I don’t know how fresh this is but it the best ones I could find in the condition this house is in. I’m a bit surprised this place hasn’t been cleared out completely.” Yinsen puts the tray in the middle of the 4 person table. He pulls out the chair that squeaks against the floor. Yinsen sits down at the table. He takes one of the drinks and takes a sip of it. “Do you mind if I ask a few questions? If you’re in a hurry just say.” Tony shakes his and motions for him to go ahead.

“Why did you save me?” Yinsen asks him from where he sits at the wooden table coated in a layer of dust. 

“Originally, I was just going to blow the place up.” A white lie. Best not to reveal too much. Tony shrugs as he says this. “I figured there would be civilian captives based on the attacks of the surrounding areas. Though I wasn’t sure how many. Facial recognition helps with situations like this.”

“How did you know I wasn’t one of them?” Yinsen narrows his eyes at him.

“Would a member of them be guarded in a locked cave with terrible conditions? You also didn’t have a gun.” Tony says. He crosses his arms as he looks at the man from across the room. “We’ve met before, you didn’t seem like the type to be a terrorist.” _For like three seconds in this timeline._

“We’ve met before..?” Yinsen studies him carefully.

“I’d be surprised if you didn’t remember me, but yes. At a conference in Berm. I’m pretty sure I was drunk off of my ass when we met so I don’t recall much but I ended up giving a lecture anyway.”

Tony stands in the room that’s coated in a layer of dust and debris. Yinsen sits at the worn-down wooden table and the other 3 chairs are empty. Yinsen looks deep in thought. He can almost hear the gears turning in Yinsen’s head. His eyes light up in recognition before turning back into confusion. Yinsen takes a sip of his drink and places it back onto the table with a soft thud. Sunlight streams in from the window lighting up the room with a beam of light. Half of Yinsen’s face is lit up with the light casting dark shadows across his face. His glasses seem to glow in the light. The lights and darks contrast in the room.

“Who are you?” Yinsen asks him and his eye look at him. 

“You know who I am.” Tony lets out a laugh remembering his name tag. “If that doesn’t bring it up I don't know what can.” Yinsen’s eyes widen.

“Tony Stark?” He asks hesitantly. His face twists into confusion.

 

“Spot on. I guess I’ll just take this off now then.” Tony says and steps forward. When he takes a step he sends out the command for the suit to unfurl. There’s a metal whirring sound and a series of clicks. The suit then opens up and Tony steps out of it and wipes a line of sweat off his forehead. He waves to Yinsen. Yinsen seems even more shocked than before. Tony just smiles at the man and pulls out the wooden chair that scratches against the wood floor. He sits at the table opposite of Yinsen and takes the cup that was meant for him. He takes a sip of the drink before realizing how dehydrated he felt and begins to gulp down the cup. Yinsen now looks at the unfurled suit.

“The suit’s really sweaty sorry.”

“You made this suit?” Yinsen asks.

“Yep.” He takes another gulp of the drink. He rests one of his arms against the back of the chair.

“How? For its capabilities, it would need an incredibly powerful energy source. What does it run on? What is it made of?”

“The glowing blue thing in the chest. That’s an arc reactor. Run a lot of power per second. It’s made of a titanium gold alloy.” Yinsen still looks at the suit of metal that sits in the shadow of the room.

“I’d love to see how it works. It’s an incredible piece of tech. Even a bit ahead of current tech. I wasn’t aware such technological feats were possible.”

“I guess I’m just a genius, and good at keeping secrets.” Tony laughed a bit nervously. Yinsen got quite close to the truth.

“I wouldn’t call that color scheme secretive.” Yinsen laughs softly and Tony joins in with genuine laughter. Yinsen brings his cup to his mouth to take a drink and Tony takes a moment to do the same. They both sit and take a sip of their drinks.

“You never answered my initial question.” Yinsen says still looking at the suit inside panels. “Why did you save me? I wouldn’t think of you as someone who would do something for no reason.”

“I…” Tony looks off to the side wondering what the correct answer would be to answer Yinsens question. He runs his hand over the texture of the table.

“That suit has incredible destruction abilities. With what I saw, I’d say it has the power to level cities.” Yinsen stares at him. “Why, then?”

“I guess I don’t want my legacy to just be weapons.” _It already is, isn’t it? Even when you said you never would make another weapon again, you still did. Your weapons have killed millions and the snap? Billions._

“My family,” Yinsen speaks softly after Tony went silent. “They were killed by your weapons.”

Tony freezes. This isn’t new information but it still stings.

“When the ten rings attacked they used your weapons. They captured me because I was an engineer and then slaughtered the rest of my family. Dare I say, those men were your loyal customers, Mr. Stark.” Tony’s hands clenched tightly against the cup and he can feel his muscles begin to tense up.

“But… I don’t blame you for their deaths.” Yinsen looks at Tony with a serious expression. “Yes, it was your weapons you designed to kill, but was it you that pulled the trigger? You’ve made weapons that kill but you can change. It seems like you want to.” The reigns that Tony holds onto ever so tightly, begin to slip.

“You have a life, Stark, don’t waste it.” If only Yinsen knew the effect of the words on him. The effect on him now and in the past. Tears prick at his eyes and he takes a moment to rub away the moisture. Yinsen seems a little surprised at the emotional reaction. Tony takes a moment to recollect himself by taking a deep breath. 

“Thank-you, Yinsen.” Tony says quietly. Yinsen smiles at him. “What are you going to do now that you’re back in your village?” 

“A good question.” Yinsen pauses in thought. “My family is gone, but I’m going to stay and help my village out.”

Tony hums. 

“Once the ten rings are gone, I’ll go back into my field of work. Who knows where that’ll take me though? Perhaps I’ll stay here or move to another facility.” Yinsen lets out a small puff of laughter. “Perhaps America? For now, I’ll stay and help tens the wounded here.”

“If you do ever go to the US just go to one of the SI offices and I’ll hook you up with a job.”

Yinsen looks surprised again.

“Thank You for the offer. I’ll think of it if I ever go.” He saved Yinsen. He’s alive. He’d like to get to know the man who sacrificed himself for Tony to escape so Tony hopes that Yinsen in the future will take his offer.

“Sir, the military is currently in town investigating the incident. They were able to identify the truck and are currently looking for vehicles that match the general description of the truck. It would be wise to leave now.” Yinsen looks at the suit where Jarvis’s voice comes from. 

“That’s my AI, Jarvis.” 

Yinsen looks like he wants to ask more but them quickly gets up and looks through the window. The man quickly closes the tattered curtains the best he can and blocks light from entering the room and bathing the room in darkness.

“The military, they’re going along the roads. It won’t be long before they find the truck and ask around.” Yinsen walks out of sight for an onlooker looking into the window. “They’re probably investigating the explosion. Chances are they spotted the truck with satellite and thought that was suspicious. It’s best if you leave now. I do not think you want to get caught. So hurry.”

Yinsen moves around quickly to tidy the place and make it look like it was only him in the house. Tony steps back into the suit that embraces him and turns on with a whir.

“Good Idea.” He mumbles a few words to Jarvis and he begins calculating routes. “ Yinsen thanks for everything. I’d hate to cut it short but I have to leave. You can keep the device, it might save you some trouble.” Tony turns to walk out. 

 

“Thank you, Tony Stark, for saving me.” Yinsen calls out to him as he opens the door to step out. Tony turns to him and gives a slight nod before turning the thrusters on and rockets into the sky. He climbs into the sky and sets off to Malibu And once again he watches the sky turn from night into day again.

-

The trip is thankfully without any interruptions, thanks to Jarvis. He has better stealth gear on then he did last time so he was harder to pick up on the radar than before. It helps his suit is well, small. No jets trying to chase him down. He’s been flying over the ocean for a few hours now so when he finally spots land(That isn’t Hawaii.) he can feel a burst of joy flutter through his system and sets off to fly even faster. Nothing right now would be better than coffee and the company of his bots.

“Approaching Malibu.” Jarvis informs him. “A successful test flight. If you could even call it a test flight, sir.”

Tony just laughs.

“Well it worked out in the end, didn’t it? As I said, you have to run before you walk sometimes.” Tony says to Jarvis and begins to steer himself towards the direction of the mansion.

The sun is starting to break over the horizon as he flies into the curly garage and hovers into the lab. Tony floats over to the grey panels in the floor. The repulsors hum softly keeping him hovering in the air before he disengages the thrusters and drops to the ground with a thud. He releases himself from the metal suit’s embrace and walks out of it. He lets out a loud sigh before stretching his arms and legs. Bein in the suit for a long time, while not uncomfortable, isn’t always the best for his muscles. He didn’t do much manual flying on his trip back and forth. Jarvis did most of it. Honestly, what would he do without Jarvis?

He pulls the black hoodie off and tosses it onto the floor where it skids before stopping. He strips himself of the undershirt before pulling on a black tank top and then doing the same with his pants but with a pair of grey sweats. Tony goes over to the sink and grabs a cup before putting it under the tap. Hydration is important. The cup fills up with water and he turns off the faucet He takes it up to his lips and gulps down the water. The water is cool compared to his overheated body and he can feel the coldness of the water run down his throat. He drinks almost half of the cup before letting out a puff of air and takes the cup back to his desk. He sits down at the desk. He puts down the cup on the desk and then uses his arms as a pillow on the table. He intends to only rest his head for a few minutes but it ends up being hours.

Tony ends up falling asleep at his desk (again).

-

Tony walks up with something hitting him again and again. He lets out a groan and swats it away before realizing he should be alone in his lab. He jolts awake looking around wildly until his eyes fall onto the robotic hand of Dummy, which has just stopped hitting him. Dummy beeps at him. He lets his muscles relax and flops back down onto the table. 

“Oh, it’s just you.” He sighs. 

Dummy is not happy with that and continues prodding his back and beeping loudly at him. 

“If you don’t stop I’m going to scrap you.” Dummy ignores this and continues to prod him. The poking stops and Tony is confused for a moment. He lifts his head from his arms to see Dummy holding his half-empty cup of water. 

“Don’t. you. Dare.” Tony says to Dummy. The robotic claw ignores him and just raises it higher. “Dummy, no put that down!” The glass leans slightly downward. Tony reaches out to try and grab the glass of water. Tony glares at the robot claw who is holding the glass in his hand and is inching towards him. Dummy tilts the glass and the water gushes out splashing onto his clothes.

Tony jumps out of his chair and onto the floor. He lets out a yelp as he scrambles around for a moment before stopping once a safe distance away from the robotic claw. He sends a glare at Dummy who only puts the glass down and lets out a series of cheerful chirps. 

“Forget that, I’m donating you to a college. I bet they will love you.” Tony looks at the right side of his shirt that’s soaked. Dummy lets out a chirp in response.

“You’re a disgrace. You know that?” He says to Dummy who still beeps at him not looking dejected at all. “A disgrace.”

“Sire, are you awake? Miss Potts has just sent a message. A rather important one.” Jarvis asks him from the ceiling.

“Jarvis, was this your doing?” He asks annoyed and emphasizes his soaked shirt by holding out to where he knows Jarvis can see it. 

“Yes, you were not waking up. I told Dum-E to wake you up. Though Dum-E was not supposed to go for the water but it worked.” Jarvis tells him. Tony just lets out a huff and crosses his arms annoyed.

“Alright, you can tell me the message later but fill me in on the past… How long was I asleep for?”

“5 hours, sir.” Jarvis informs him. “ The past couple of hours since your departure and nap were rather uneventful. The bugs in the servers tell me that they’re currently looking for information about the situation in Afghanistan.”

“Oh? What do they have currently?” 

“Current theories is a UAV meant to look humanoid. After interrogation of captured members of the 10 rings, they added ‘All the members claimed it was a red and gold metal man that attacked them’. They’ve looked in Gulmira and looked for trucks that were similar to the satellite feed. They questioned a few of the civilians. I can get the reports for you to look over if you would prefer that.” 

“Better keep the suit on the downlow.” Tony starts twisting his shirt to squeeze out the water. “I should also dismantle that and make an extra core or two in case of damage.” Tony looks to the particle accelerator.

“Miss Potts have just sent another message.”

“What’s she saying?” he stands up from sitting on the floor. “Anything bad?”

“Miss Potts is informing you of your need to attend a medical fundraising gala.”

“I don’t remember anything like that.” Tony sits on his desk now fiddling with a screwdriver on his desk.

“Miss Potts was the one to set this up. She’s already said you were to attend with a grant to give to help funding. She sent you a message to remind you again because you didn’t read the first. It’s in a few hours and you also need to fly to New-York for it.” A holo-screen pop up in front of his face, it’s a calendar. “You also have a board of Directors meeting soon. We can execute the ‘iron-monger’ plan soon because we have enough evidence to win in court. I would recommend contacting your lawyers to build a case as a failsafe for is Stane reacts badly to the news.”

“Well set that up. I’ll go prepare for the Gala.” Tony gets up from the desk and places the screwdriver down. “I haven’t made a public appearance in a while anyway.”

“Of course, sir.”  
“Jarvis, let’s get this show on the road.”

 

-

 

\- Interlude : 2019 -

Tony sits in his workshop. Thousands of images from the holo-screens surround him. His eyes flick over each one reading each one briefly. Most of them are all news reports of billions gone, billions faded into dust and a world thrown into chaos. Photos of the growing chaos and unrest pop up. He glances at the missing person list and then to the missing people counter rise. There are multiple counters each for a different location. It rises much slower than it used to do but the numbers keep flickering up. Tony fiddles with the screwdriver in his hand.

Billions are dead and a million more are heading there. Having half the population just die all of a sudden isn’t good for the workforce or the governments of many countries. Important people in positions of power dusted. Fights for power ensure. Groups of people claiming it’s the end, they’re not wrong. No one enforcing the rules and no one follows the rules. There’s a surplus of food and resources. Lots of things just turn to waste. The snap has created a social upheaval and all the scales were thrown out of balance.

It’s been three months. Nothing has been fixed and everything is getting worse.

The lab door of the compound hisses open and someone steps into the workshop. Tony hears soft footsteps.

“Tony.” The person chokes out slightly. It’s a voice he’d know anywhere. Tony turns from the multiple screens that surround him to look at the person. He can barely keep his eyes open and his eyelids flutter from exhaustion. He blinks a few times to focus in on the figure with his blurry vision. He braces his hand against the desk and his eyes finally focus on the person who entered the room. It’s his fiance, Pepper. He looks at Pepper’s expression with concern. Her eyes gleam with a watery shine. They have tear stains running down her cheeks and her eyes are red. She’s been crying. Her face contorts as she struggles to maintain a straight face. Pepper brings her hand up for her mouth and covers it. Tears flow from her face and her body trembles. Something happened. Something bad.

“Pepper…? What happened?” He asks her slowly and stands up from his desk. Pepper muffles her sobs by her hand and tears flow down her face. Tony walks up to her and cups her cheek trying to comfort her. Pepper lowers her hands from her face. She moves her head to rests her head on his shoulder. Tony wraps his arms around and moves his hand in soothing movements on her back. He can feel her trembling body in his arms as she cries.

“It’s Rhodey.” Pepper chokes out in tears. “He’s.. He’s hurt.”

Tony freezes and his blood runs cold.

-

Tony’s footsteps thud against the tile floors of the compound. His chest heaves and his blood pounds loudly in his ears. He dashes to the medbay where Pepper told him that Rhodey was there. Fearing for the worst and hoping for the best as he runs. 

_I can’t lose anyone else._

He finally makes it to the room. The run seems like hours with each step more thoughts rise. He bursts through the door. The door slams open with a loud bang startling the other inhabitant in the room. 

The room is a stagnant white. A window with teal curtains casts light into the room. There’s a random abstract painting hanging on the wall. 

On the bed is a lip suit of armor, Rhodey’s armor. On the side of it stands Captain America himself, Steve Rogers. His throat goes dry and his fervent pace slows as he slowly walks over to the Iron-Patriots armor. He stands next to Steve. His heart hammers in his chest. He struggles to breathe

“Tony?” Steve asks him. It’s Stark not tony- Now's not the time for this. He still wears his mission gear that has more than multiple tears and rips in it. The whole outfit color scheme is much more muted than it used to be. Steve’s hair is slicked back but it’s longer than it used to be. There are a few strands of hair out of place. His face is clean shaven and no longer sporting the beard he war when Tony first saw him after the snap. Steve has bandaged and patches on his face. Bandages are wrapped around his forearm, His eyes are almost blank. Another loss then, At what cost? Tony looks back at Rhodey’s suit.

No

No no no nononononono.

Please no.

“Steve, what happened?” He looks at Steve. Steve’s eyes flicker to the side and his expression drops. Dread fills Tony’s body. He already knows that Rhodey’s dead. He can’t help but hope that there’s a chance he’s not. He brings his hand slowly up to touch the armor. It’s crushed. The head is caved in, the chest is twisted and crushed. The suit is a mangled mess of metal. There’s no way anyone would survive in the suit if they were in it when it was crushed. Dried flakes of blood speckle his helmet. Tony’s hand trembles as he reaches to touch the reactor of the crushed suit. Shards of glass stick out from the broken reactor and he can see exposed wires.

“He died fighting.” Steve says trying to avoid the subject. His voice gets choked with emotion and guilt is evident on his face. “We couldn’t save him.”

“What happened?” His vision tunnels to only focus on the crushed metal suit. He can only look at the helmet with multiple large dents. Tony’s joints lock up and his body tenses.  
“Tony I’m-”

 _“What happened?”_ he asked again. Steve looks startled for a moment and looks at him for a few moments before sighing.

“It was a risk.” Steve still tries to avoid the subject. “We all took a risk and we knew the possible outcome of taking this risk.”

“Steve. Just tell me. I don’t need to hear this ‘it was a risk’ or ‘you can’t save everyone’ BS. Just tell me. I know he’s dead.” Steve looks at him with a troubled expression before letting out a puff of air reluctantly.

“It was Thanos.” Steve says. Tony lets out a slight scoff and Steve’s blue eyes flick to Tony. His eyes are defeated and there’s slight eyebags hang under his eyes. The man looks exhausted. He rests his hands on the table in front of him. He moves his eyes to look back at the suit. “This fight was harder. Especially since we already lost so many people. It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Steve. I need to know what happened. If you don’t want to. Fine. I can easily look up the suit logs. Tony removes his hand from the reactor and turns to walk out through the door.

Tony, wait.” Steve calls out to him. He’s taken a few steps towards him. Tony turns to look at him and raises his eyebrow slightly in a questioning manner.

“Yes?” 

“It’s hard to speak about it, but it wouldn't’ be fair if I didn’t tell you how Rhodey died. If I was in your shoes and the same thing happened to Bucky, you’d tell me.” Steve takes a moment. His eyes turn sorrowful as he mentions Bucky. He lets out a puff of air and straightens his posture. 

“We were fighting him, Lang, Nat, Thor, Bruce, Rhodes and Danvers.” Steve starts to recall and his fists clenched as he thinks about unpleasant memories. Steve’s face scrunches up tightly. “Rhodes was in his suit releasing bombs so Danvers and I could get opportunities to land blows. Thanos still has his gauntlet. It’s damaged but allows him to wield the stones at some capacity. If he uses too much of the power of the stones it shatters even more. We tried to take advantage of that drawback.” 

Steve brings his hand to look up at the bandaged limb. Pain flashes through his eyes.

“Danvers suffered a fatal injury and was incapacitated for a few moments. Enough for Thanos to try to kill her. Rhodes took a hit for Danvers after she was injured. He was about to do the finishing blow and Rhodes took the hit. He was crushed in less than a second. A terrible screeching noise and then Rhodes falling from the sky. He was dead before he hit the ground.” Steve finishes. His voice progressively getting softer and softer until it’s barely a whisper.

“Is he..?” Tony swallows heavily and he can feel the familiar sense of dread flow through his veins. He glances at the suit. “He’s still in the suit right?” Steve nods.

“We couldn’t get it open. Too many functions we’re disabled by the suit being crushed.” 

“Why didn’t Friday tell me…?” Everything seems to swirl and Tony nearly loses his balance in the room. His legs stumble and Steve gently grabs his shoulders to help steady Tony. He carefully guides Tony to one of the couches in the med bay; thankfully far away from limp suit of metal. He looks at Steve’s face that’s pinched with concern. He sits down on couch struggling to take in air into his lungs.

“The coms were busted. We lost communications.”

“Still doesn’t explain why.” His chest shudders with each breath and clutches his face with his hands.

Silence enters the room. Tony struggling to breathe and Steve awkwardly standing by unsure of what the best way to help him. Tony lets out a yell and slams his fist against the couch. It seems to startle Steve who looks at him shocked for a moment.

“This is why we needed a plan!” _Nothing ever goes to plan though. No one listened to him._ He only needed a little bit longer until he could fully make preparations. Tony gets up from the couch quickly. He does so too quickly and stumbles. Steve rushed up to help him back to his feet but he just shoves the super-soldier aside. “We needed something more than ‘fight the mad Titan’! We don’t even know if it’s possible to reverse the snap! We were obliterated by Thanos even with the most powerful people on earth! What makes you think that we can take on him with half our fighting force with _no plan!”_

“Tony-”

“Not now.” Tony huffs while pacing around the med bay. “I’ve made mistakes. I may be hypocritical right now but we needed to think! Reduce the casualties right? The best course of action! Thanos was just sitting his grape-ass on the farm and chances are he wouldn’t moves because _that planet was what he wanted from the snap_. Other than kill half the universe!! We had time, we could have brought the best minds together for the best course of attack. I didn’t come along on your crusade because we needed to think! I tried to keep earth together after billions dusted into thin air but what did you guys do the moment you found Thanos’s location? You bolted to attack without a single thought!” 

“Thanos was a huge threat. By defeating Thanos we would reduce the casualties because who knows how many more would die from his hands? He had all the stones, if we had taken them from him we could research and find a way to reverse it! Even if we couldn’t we had to avenge the fallen.”

“Rhodey died because of this half baked idea!” Clint died! Steve if you don’t find a better way you’ll all die from his hands.”

“We always lose soldiers in war. It’s something you have to accept when taking risks. People are always lost to gain something!”

“One, we’re not soldiers! Was that girl a soldier? Was she? Only 16 and Thanos killed her with his own hands! How many of us that died are actually soldiers? Clint? Rocket?” Tony yells back at him and jabs his finger at him. “The only reason why I tried to reconcile with all the other Avengers including you, was because of Rhodey and guess what he’s dead!”

His chest heaves with exertion from yelling. He turns away from Steve and paces around the room. He puts his hands in his hands and struggles to prevent tears that threaten to flow. He wipes his eyes with his sleeves. Their leave tear stains on his suit jacket’s sleeve.

They both go quiet.

“We never stood a chance, did we?” Steve looks defeated and the silence continues. “But that’s why we have to try.”

“Even after everything? All the deaths?” Tony dares to ask. Steve seems to shed the defeated look and a glint of determination shines in his eyes.

“Yes. We don’t have a choice. For the good of everyone. Even if the snap isn’t reversed we still need to send the message to everyone that we won’t let this stop us. That will continue to fight and never stop.” Steve looks almost desperate “Tony, please. We need your help more than anything right now with all the loses. If we work together we can do better.” Tony steps forward and walks past Steve. He’ll think about the offer later. He can’t really think rationally when he’s on edge from his emotions.

He ignores Steve and goes to the mangled suit that rests on the table. Facing his fears, what could go wrong? _Absolutely everything._ Steve's eyes follow him to it. Tony hears soft footsteps that follow him. Tony runs his hands over each dent in the armor and avoiding the jagged edges. Tony sighs and resigns himself to doing this. There’s no turning back.

“Friday.” he tells the AI quietly and a line of nanobots slink across his arm. The lines branch out off his arm and run across his skin to Rhodey’s suit restoring the reactor and mechanics enough for it to open. The reactor flickers to life weakly. The suit opens with a hideous groan. Worse than nails on a chalkboard and sends shivers down Tony’s spine. The suit lets out a soft kst noise from a puff of air equalizing the pressure in the air and suit. Tony isn’t prepared for the sight. Tony brings his hands off the suit to grip the table edges tightly. He tries to keep the dam closed but he can't and tears begin to flow over and run down his cheeks. He lets out a strangled sob and curls in on himself. He cries. Maybe he should be wary of the fact Steve stands behind him, he can’t bring himself to care. The only thing he can focus on is the suit.

He’s dead. He already knew that but seeing his body actually dead is a slap to the face. Perhaps he could have lived a bit longer in wonderful denial. That wouldn’t do any good, would it?

Rhodey’s corpse is a bloody mess. Streaks of dried blood line his face. His head is caved on the left side of his head and it looks like a deflated ball - but worse. It looked like blood ran down his face from his nose and mouth. The man’s nose is contoured and squished to the side in a mangled fashion. Rhodey’s mouth is agape slightly. His face is so distorted from his injuries it’s hard to even recognise the man. His arms are twisted unnaturally. His abdomen is in an awful shape after being crushed. Probably where Thanos’s power was centered when crushing the suit. Dried flecks of blood litter the suit and his face.

It’s so bad that Tony feels bile rise up from his throat. He’s overcome with a sensation of nausea and can barely keep himself upright. White noise seems to take over and it feels like he’s underwater. Nothing makes sense. Everything is blurry. He feels like he’s floating with no purpose. Just nothing but darkness takes over. He looks down at his hands that seem to swirl. 

It’s too much. Too much right now. He can’t look any longer and calls the spare nanobots back to their container. He releases his death grip of the table and wipes the tears that fall from his face with his sleeves. They leave giant wet marks on his jacket but he doesn’t care. He’s unable to stop the soft sobs that threaten to turn into wails that come from him. He struggles to keep his emotions in check. He tries to block them from falling but right now it’s too much to hold in. The ocean in his mind seems to be a typhoon and waves constantly crash into him with each one rising in intensity until he can’t stop it. 

Tony can’t stop the tears. He can’t stop it and he lets the emotions take him. He's not in control right now. He stumbles towards a wall and collapses against it. He braces his hand against the wall to keep him upright. He can’t think about anything but his best friends death and knowing he could have done something about it. Maybe he could have prevented it. He slams his fist against the wall that echos with a loud thud. Too many thoughts and memories fly behind his eyelids. 

His best friend is dead.

He’s already lost two of the most important people to him. Why is he the one who’s always lose everything? He just lost his best friend making the counter rise from two to three.

Tony can hear quiet footsteps. Steve comes up from behind him. He realizes with a drop of dread that Steve has been watching his whole emotional moment.

“Hey, Tony-”

“Steve, right now I’m not _in the mood to talk right now._ ” He nearly hisses out while clutching the wall.

“But-”

“You should go. I’ll talk later but right now I prefer to be alone.” His voice is monotone and devoid of any emotion. 

Tony doesn’t look at Steve reaction and the man leaves. The door opens with a soft click and then he hears it close. When he looks up from the wall Steve is gone. He turns and slumps against his back against the wall. He collapses onto the ground with his back connecting with the wall. Tony curls into himself and cries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How about that interlude? I wasn't sure where I wanted to fit it in so I put it at the end. Tony might be ooc in that part but deaths change you.
> 
> Once again sorry for the long update wait! I got swamped with assignments. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Anyway feedback is always appreciated! If you enjoyed it please leave a kudos/comment! I always love seeing comments. MCU timeline is bad so like always just let me know if timing is bad or if I make mistakes! 
> 
> Up next: Strange!
> 
> Edit: just wanna thank the people who take time to comment on each chapter!(especially the ones who commented more than once! It makes me super happy whenever I recognize your username! You guys are all doing great in life)
> 
> Edit 2: Yinsen actually has daughter in the comics, her name being Antonia Ho or Dr. Ho I believe. I was searching around for more about Yinsen's character when I stumbled upon it though I could be wrong because I only glances at it briefly but idk.


	5. Of Patience and Wit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony encounters two people he never thought he'd see again, at least, not for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sorry how long this took. The days just really caught up with me and Endgame murdered me. 
> 
> That being said, there will be no spoilers for endgame in this fic! it comepelty diverges from from the end of Infinity war. Call it another timeline. This fic has a completely different future with different events.

_“Well set that up. I’ll go prepare for the Gala.” Tony gets up from the desk and places the screwdriver down. “I haven’t made a public appearance in a while anyway.”_

_“Of course, sir.”_

_“Jarvis, let’s get this show on the road._

-

Tony sit’s alone in his Jet. Perks of being a rich genius. The plane is fully automated by Jarvis and no other human being is on his plane. He’d rather not be around anyone right now. Being alone is nice sometimes. He just needs time to just think and sorts his thoughts that swirl in his mind. 

He saved Yinsen.

The man didn’t die in his arm sacrificing himself for Tony. The person who helped inspire his change didn’t die for him and is a live. He might even be able to see Yinsen again. He hopes he does get to see Yinsen again. 3 months in captivity with just each other makes for an odd friendship that only Tony knows of. Thinking of Yinsen makes Tony think of others in his life.

Being alone can be dangerous.

He shooed Happy away earlier after he escorted him to the airport. Really it was more of Tony driving above the speed limit in his car and driving faster than Happy. It’s been harder to avoid Happy since he’s, well, his bodyguard. Who’s supposed to protect him. And the one he pays to do that. He’s also his friend. 

His thoughts trial towards Pepper. She’s as beautiful as she always was. Her attitude and brashness were just the same. The same fiery spirit of hers and her chilling business techniques. It hasn’t changed much. It’s a double-edged sword. At times, seeing Pepper alive made him smile and comforted him to have a familiar face around. In the younger Pepper, he’d sometimes see flashes of his Pepper. As much as it comforted him, at times it was like barbs squeezed his heart.

Her smiling face with the fond expression whenever he told a lame joke. Her laugh. The crinkling of her eyes whenever she smiled. Even when times became rough she always came back to him. The way her eyes were filled with warmth whenever she looked at him.

The warmth that no longer exists in the eyes of the now Pepper.

Sure, there’s a little warmth, but not as much as his Pepper.  
Rhodey was still the man who would stick with him despite his idiotic plans. This time, Tony will avoid these complications that occurred… he’ll give him the War Machine suit without any hassle. Without Hammer deciding to stick his grubby hands into his beautiful suit and messing it up with his defective weapons. Tony’s glad that the most important people in his life he’s known for years and that they are still friends even ten years ago. So he still knows about them. Except for Peter.

At least where he met Rhody is still the same. He smiles fondly at memories of Rhodey keeping up with his antics, shutting down some of his dumbassery and sometimes joining in at times. The exasperated sigh whenever Tony did or said something stupid, which was often despite him being a genius. Tony would give Rhodey a shit-eating grin while Rhodey would think about his life choices.

Tony sure as hell can't recover or forget any of the trauma. But hiding it is easier. Telling anyone than Jarvis can have horrible effects on his plan. He’d probably be declared insane if he ever told people what he knew. 

_Tony Stark a hero? You must be joking._

Tony laughs bitterly in the private jet and fiddles with the suit he wears.

He must be acting pretty differently. If he was an outside eye he’s pretty sure people would pick up on his off actions. He hasn’t been to a party in days. He hasn’t been outside in days. The list of purchases would certainly raise a few eyebrows. In the past week the media has barely gotten anything of him.

Ten years ago Tony, it would have been odd for him not to be out an about in Malibu. 

No parties, no girls, no alcohol. All of which he was popular for. All things he’s given up years ago.

Tony sighs as he sits in the plush leather couch of the jet. His hands dig into the black leather armrest as he just thinks. The leather is firm but soft as he digs his fingernails into the material to feel the rugged texture. A laptop rests on a table positioned in front of him. He looks turns his head to look outside the rounded window. The spanse of the blue sky that’s speckled with clouds stares back at him. He takes a breath of the sterile air of the pressurized plane.

If he’d taken his suit he’d be in New York by now. But no, he has to stay on the down-low with the Iron-man suit. Tony lets out a groan and sinks further into his seat. His head falls to halfway down the seat and his legs are sprawled out in front of him. Tony glares at the laptop that’s now eye level with him. He sits like that in the chair for awhile just glaring at the laptop like it offended him in some way. 

Once he feels like the laptop has had enough Tony lets out a loud sigh that echos in the empty room of the plane. He rolls his body off the couch and onto the floor. His expensive suit most likely getting wrinkled in the process. For another amount of time, he stays on the soft carpet floor of the jet with his limbs sprawled out in all directions. He looks at the white ceiling of the plane and looks at all the details of the jet. After a while, he rolls onto his side and starts studying a piece of the flooring with his eyes.

“Sir.” Jarvis voice echos from a speaker near him. Tony rolls onto his back and looks at the ceiling again.

He loves Jarvis, but he also misses Friday. His other sassy AI. He’ll have to start coding her again. This time Friday will have Jarvis to help guide her development. 

“Yep?” He says flatly with a monotone voice. Tony’s tired. His eyelids flutter slightly out of boredom. There’s so much to do and Tony’s stuck in a plane thousands of feet in the air.

“Sir, the Arc reactor is able to be blown up without any unwanted effects.” 

Tony sits up so quickly he almost gives himself whiplash. He quickly vaults himself up and scrambles onto the chair with the table that has his laptop on it. He quickly taps the logo on the laptop and with a faint startup hum a holograph flickers into life. Tony is alert and watches the screen in anticipation. 

“Perfect. Okay. Great, let’s do it now.” He says hyperly and his voice teeming with excitement.

“Overloading the factory reactor now…” Jarvis pulls up camera feed of the reactor. The blue light spins faster and faster. Getting brighter with each circuit. There’s a loud humming noise and then... Boom. It explodes in a flurry of colors and sparks. The camera then cuts out and there’s an error message. Tony smiles at it and a feeling of satisfaction runs down his spine.

“Done.”

“That was kinda anticlimactic. I kinda expected… more sparky boom boom stuff.” Tony says out loud while messing around with the screen and getting a bunch of notifications from the security system and workers at the factory. “Nonetheless, good. We needed an excuse to stop weapons production for a few days. Make it a computing error. The stock may go down though… It’s a perfect excuse for the press conference he’s been wanting.”

Tony looks at the screen and sighs loudly.

“Have any luck with Capsicle?”

Tony thinks about it for a moment. Him and Cap never really resolve the bad blood that lingered. He doesn't think they’d ever sort it out completely. Their fights and differences were deeply rooted into both of them.

More than once over the past few day’s Tony wondered if finding cap was really necessary. Coulson would end up finding him anyway. But if he found Cap first… he could… nevermind. 

“Narrowed down to a few grids.” Maps of frozen wasteland popup as Jarvis says this.

“Man, I can’t wait to send better tech into space and make even better tech. This ten-year gap is killing me. I don’t know what I’d do if I was sent 20 years into the past.”

Jarvis seems to let out a laugh

“Knowing you sire, you would find a way to make it work.”

-

Tony gets off the plane with no qualms. It’s only an hour or two before the gala is scheduled to start. At least he got dressed before getting off the plane, he’d have to freshen up a bit though.

He hops off the final steps of the stairs that lead to the jet. His designer shoes connect with the runway with a click. Tony runs his hands down his suit smoothing out the nonexistent creases. Keeping up public appearances is important after all. He pulls sunglasses onto his face and flicks them open with a little wave. The glasses are placed onto his face despite it being night. He has a holoscreen on the inside of the screen so he can have AR glasses without anyone seeing it. He runs his calloused hands through his hair slicking it back. Once he’s satisfied with his somewhat messy- but stylish appearance he begins to walk to the parking lot area.

New York.

He’s in it again. He’s in the outskirts of it though. Tony turns around slightly to see the skyline behind him and his eyes widen at the familiar sight. The sun has long gone down below the horizon but the city lights up the night. Millions of glowing dots that are dulled from his glasses but shines in the night. Tall building rise against the skyline and Tony can’t help but long to have his tower back where it was.

Peter’s living in the city right now.

Tony shakes his head slightly to dismiss that thought. Right now he needs to work on his mask. To fall back into what he was ten years ago. A Selfish narcissistic playboy. In front of likely millions and even billions of people watching him.

That isn’t new, he’s been watched since the moment he was born.

Tony walks down the sidewalk that leads to the parking lot. His leather shoes tap against the pavement as he walks lightly. Happy trots on up to him.

“How did you get here before me?” He asks the man while just counting to walk towards the shiny black car. It has minimal accents but the car looks expensive. 

Tony mentally kicks himself when he thinks of the man’s death. He’s been avoiding Happy- actually most people as well. It’s not personal. _It kinda is just not to you Happy._

“Hey, boss.” Come’s Happy’s reply.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Tony says while flicking his sunglasses off and looking at the man.

“It took a while for your jet to get into the air.” Happy says with a committal shrug. 

Tony raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anymore as he places the glasses smoothly back onto his face. They walk in silence and Happy holds his suitcase. They walk down the pavement path to the parking lot. Happy gets to the car and opens the trunk putting his suitcases into the back. Tony takes this as an opportunity to open the back door and hop into the seat.

Happy gives him a weird look and Tony returns the look.

“Alright, Hap, let’s get going to the gala. We’re already late. Though there is a thing as fashionably late.” Tony proclaims and Happy looks at him again. His eyes bore into Tony’s eyes - sunglasses. Tony just shrugs. “Didn’t feel like driving.” or talking. This evening is going to be a mess.

Happy gives him one more look before slamming the trunk closed and getting into the front seat. The engine starts with a simple touch of a button and the car whirs to life. It starts with a soft purr that Tony loves. It’s been a while since heś had a chance to admire a car. It may be severely outdated in his eyes but hey, it’s a car. A good one too. The car begins to move and out of the parking lot. 

It glides softly across the road and Tony sinks back into the soft seats of the car and settles himself into the back. Tony lets out a sigh as he rests his head back on the headrest. His eyes flutter a bit. 

“Hey boss, you doing alright?” Happy asks in the silence of the car in the middle of the ride. Tony stops sinking into the seat and looks at Happy who glances at him from the rear view mirror.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“For starters. I’m driving _you_. You always drive yourself.” He gestures to Tony with one of his hands that isn't on the steering wheel. 

“I didn’t feel like it today. Dealt with too much emotional bullshit.” Tony says and leans down to grasp underneath the seat. Tony rummages around the drawer below before finding the similar shape of a water bottle and pulls it out. 

“You don’t seem like it.”

“Maybe I’m not then.”

“Pepper’s worried.”

“She’s _always_ worried.”

“Yeah, well Tony, I’m worried.” Happy sighs. You weren’t talking to anyone in days. Not even Pepper. You just dumped the company on her for a bit. She’s told me you haven’t been out with anyone or anywhere.”

“I had things to do.”

“It’s like you changed overnight.” Happy says with a sigh,

“Awh, Happy you warm my heart you-” Tony says dramatically and places a hand on his chest and fake swoons. 

“Don’t even start.”

“Ugh, you’re no fun.” Tony lets out a puff of air as he places his hands back onto the seat. 

“Just, maybe tell someone. Maybe, Pepper. She worries you know?”

Tony goes nods softly and goes silent for the rest of the ride.

-

He arrives 20 minutes late. Which is fine since you never arrive at the gala on time. Always want to be _fashionably late_ as one may call it. Tony steps out of the car. Just as he’s about to close the door he says.

“See ya in a few Hap.”

“Bye, Boss.”

Tony closes the door with a slam and immediately he’s assaulted with flashes on lights. He takes a deep breath and air fills his lungs. He lets it out slowly before letting the mask fall into place. He begins to strut confidently across the pathway leading to the building. A lot of big names will be attending the gala so the media is especially vicious tonight.

The sunglasses thankfully block out the majority of the flashes from his eyes. The stage smile he wears falls into place and waves to the paparazzi in the crowd. Something begins to knot in his stomach. 

“Hey, Tony.” A woman calls him. Tony stops to look at her for a moment. 

“Do, I know you?” He asks keeping his face a passive blank.

“You don’t remember?” She starts to move herself into an enticing pose. She looks a little hurt. Her thin hands begin playing with the edges of her hair.

“Nope, sorry.” He quickly turns away and walks from the startled woman and picks up his pace and walks through the line of people all with a fake smile on his face.

As he nears the building and walks up the steps to the lobby area flashes go off and off. He may not be popular for being a hero but he’s still considered a celebrity. He steps into the area and is greeted by a woman who leads him to the elevator leading to the event. He steps in and the elevator doors close with a hiss before going up very quickly to the top of the building. When the doors open he’s immediately buffeted by wind due to the air pressure equalizing. 

Tony continued his walk and goes into the gala room. It’s not the area where they’d be dining but more of a social place to wait for people to arrive. 

Mundane conversations float through the air. Glasses clink and shoes click. The room is bathed in an off white yellow due to the bright chandeliers and lights that illuminate the room. The sound of amble chatter fills the room and soft music plays in the background. There are at least a hundred people occupying the room right now.

He steps into the room and passes under the arched doorway. The moment his leather-clad sole stepped into the room hundreds of eyes shifted to him. He hesitates for a moment. Just a split second. Anything more would be dire. Like always, the mask settles onto his face as he shifts his demeanor to radiate confidence and be relaxed at the same time. This position gives off confidence, perhaps _too_ much but he’s playing a role tonight. An easygoing smile rests on his face that masks his discomfort.

The lights shine brightly and reflect off multiple crystal fixtures in the tall ceiling. The room is an off white that's been embellished with intricate designs of gold. Long and tall windows are on each wall. Each one with a border similar to a column. The city is visible through each window and the city shines below him. The sky may be dark but it’s lit up by the millions of inhabitants of the city of New York.

He walks to the middle of the room. People subtle try to look at him. Everyone seems to surround him and he can hear his pulse thud in his ears. The suit around him seems to brush and scratch against his skin uncomfortably. The perfectly tailored suit crinkles and makes too much noise as he walks. Everything seems to fit improperly and hug his body in all the wrong ways. The whispering of people annoy his ears. The clicking of expensive leather shoes annoy him. The tats of stilettoes. The squeaking, the shifting, the clicking. Everything seems to be constricting him. 

A familiar sensation, one he knows all too well, begins to settle in his stomach and coil. His chests tighten and his throat chokes him. Breathing becomes a task that he struggles to do. His clothes choke him. The tie around his neck feels like it’s strangling him. His legs turn to lead and it’s a struggle to take each step.

It’s…

 

It’s…

Someone taps his shoulder. 

“Tony Stark?” A man calls out to him.

Tony swallows down the rising discomfort and begins to move towards the group of people that the man was talking with. The other people in the group introduce themselves to him and they continue talking about possible options with the funding. Tony lets himself get sucked into the dull conversation. Most of them are people pleasers. Catering to each of his questions and being ridiculous. Sickly sweet in a way. He purposely asks a few questions that make them stumble and makes them unsure of what Tony wants to hear from them.

Every word he says doesn’t allow him to forget how high strung he is. Like a rubber band about to snap after being stretched too much. Every muscle is alert. Even if no one notices he’s constantly watching everything. The exits, entrances, the people, everything. He just watches everything as a way to keep him from drifting off or falling into his own mind. The city clothes(They shouldn’t be though) he wears bug him to no end. The perfectly tailored shirt seems to strangle him. For the past couple of minutes he fidgeted with the buttons of his suit every now and then. He wishes he had his pen right about now.

Despite being on edge Tony does what he normally does, or at least what normal was for ten years. He talks with people. Charms them. He saves contacts that he’ll probably never use. It’s tiring. Tony now is talking with a group right now about the potential research they could do with funding. Tony is supposedly giving a big sum of money for funding so that explains why everyone is so… nice. The group is still talking when a waiter comes over holding a tray with multiple bubbling flutes of champagne. The waiter offered each of them a flute if they didn’t already have a drink saying it was complimentary.

The golden bubbles seem to sparkle under the lights. Despite the beauty, it makes Tony sick.

Oh, that’s right. He forgot. The thing is about galas, is that alcohol is _everywhere_

Most people take a flute, even the ones already holding a drink. When the waiter extends the tray to him he’s about to decline. Just as he raises his hand he can feel multiple eyes look at him. It would be a simple no and it’s done, but the implications of the no have much higher effects. That’s not what the mask he wears is. His hand trembles slightly as he reaches out. Time almost slows and his breathing picks up until all he can focus on is the sparkling drink. The tremble is so light, you can't see it unless you really looked. Tony tries to suppress the growing uneasiness and tries to maintain a smile. An action that barely lasted a second felt like years. He grasps the flute with his hand. It’s cold and sends chills down his spine and has to suppress a shiver. The flute is lifted off the tray and is now in his hands.

Just a normal adult thing that everyone does.

Even more annoying is that he needs to take it because of his _reputation_.

He’s broken into a cold sweat by now and it makes Tony want to laugh. It drips down his neck ever so lightly and Tony raises a hand to wipe it away.

The flute is now in his hands and he dares to take a sip to match and blend in somewhat to the people around him. He lifts it to his lips and tilts the glass back a bit. Immediately the taste hits his tongue and guilt courses through him.

_Disgust._

All he can think of is disgust. Maybe it’s himself, maybe it’s the drink but all he can think of is getting it out. The drink leaves a bitter taste despite being a sweet variant. In his haste to spit it out, the drink goes down the wrong pipe and he ends up choking on the fizzy drink. He sputters and coughs for a moment as he nearly drops the flute.

Everyone looks at him. _Everyone._ At least that’s what it feels like. Tony just quickly straightens up and gives them all a smile. Cameras must have caught that. At everyone’s worried stare he brings his hand up in a dismissive motion. God, he’s tired. Thank god for concealer and sunglasses. Considering the size of the dark circles underneath his eyes wouldn’t be pretty.

His throat stings.

Around him conversation resumes. Tony’s able to talk with the group that he choked in front of for a few more minutes before deciding to find another place to talk to people and wait for the dining to begin.

Tony knows how to read someone. Maybe he’s not the best at but after dealing with people who just wanted to use him he knows the general look of one of them. This is what Tony thinks when a woman came up to him. This is not the first time this night. This is not the first time he’s shooed someone away from him at the gala. The woman is attractive. The problem is that she’s too close for comfort. She clings onto his shoulder lightly and giving him flirtatious glances every now and then. Tony simply smiles at her and continues speaking to her while doing his best to ignore her. Rejecting her wouldn’t fit the criteria of the role, would it now?

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have a night…

No that wouldn’t do. There’s too much going on right now.

The woman’s hands trail lower down towards the no-no square. Her hands come up to try and lift the sunglasses off his face. It freaks him out and he begins panicking slightly. Tony puts out a hand to stop her. She looks at him in confusion before whispering a few words into his ear and walks away. Leaving Tony to let out a breath of relief. She’s not the first one of this night who has tried to get into his pants. She’s not the last either.

Maybe at one point he found comfort in the touch of strangers. That’s not who he was now. Even with his Pepper dead(It hasn’t even been a year) every touch or anything vaguely sexual makes him sick. He’s given up having multiple bedfellows and realized he no longer found any enjoyment in doing it. No one knows that though.

He’s had his whole character arc and no one got the memo.

That’s annoying. Did he ever find comfort in being what his father was? He doesn’t want to do this. The alcohol, the partying, are all things he decided weren’t for him. He rather be with his bots and Jarvis.

Tony turns away to hop into another conversation as he looks at the woman walking away. The still full glass of champagne rest in his hands. He turns and his eyes catches a familiar face, or more of about half the head. The sight of the man makes him frown. 

The one who said they only had a 1 in a 14 million chance of beating Thanos. 

Guess his timeline wasn’t the one.

The man may not know Tony but Tony does.

Stephen Strange.

The man turns and without a doubt it’s him. He may be without a beard and the greyed hair at his temples but Tony can tell it’s the wizard. He’s dressed in an elegant suit and not his Jedi robes… or sorcerer robes? Is he a sorcerer right now? A weird feeling starts to settle in his mind and he can’t place it. He stares at Strange for a couple of moments.

He doesn’t recall meeting Strange until Thanos happened. Tony also remembers he wouldn’t have gone to the gala in his original timeline if he was held captive in Afghanistan. Time shenanigans are always fun. That mean’s with every change he’s made so far, bigger changes are in the works. It’s odd that he’s meet him out of all the people in the world right now. It’s even stranger that despite having similar-ish social circles Tony has never met the man before. 

Tony knows little about the man. Most of what he knows is what strange said on Titan and by Wong in his timeline. They were both practically strangers. He would be basically a stranger to Strange. Hah… Maybe not completely though, his life is practically monitored almost all the time. Tabloids exist.

A thought crosses his mind. Strange said he protected the time stone. He used the time stone. Did he have something to do with this?

But… why him out of all people? Did he know?

While staring at strange in thought the man in question seems to notices someone staring at him. Strange looks around until his eyes settle on Tony who _could_ be considered staring at the man as his head was tilted in his general direction. Strange looks younger. Like everyone looks younger. It’s… weird.

Strange’s stare settles on Tony and they make eye contact. Well, only Tony does. Tony is still wearing his sunglasses that shield his eyes from the rest of the room. When Strange looks at him with a questioning glance Tony just smiles at the man and turns away. He can’t decide if he wants to talk to the man. He may or may not be responsible for this timeline mess.

Besides, the guy’s an ass.

As Tony stark's walking away to the bar to dispose of his champagne and order something not alcoholic, while paying them a bunch of money despite the fact no one would ever believe them if they said Tony Stark ordered a nonalcoholic drink from a bar. No one would believe them. He moves smoothly through the floor and tries to go to the bar until a soft tap on his shoulder makes him turn around. When he turns he’s met with the face of Stephen Strange. _Wow he really needs a beard._ He looks like a baby without the goatee. In a bad way.  
“Dr. Tony Stark?” The wizard-neurosurgeon asks. Tony just looks at him confused for a moment because _no one ever refers to him as doctor???_. He stares for a little bit too long and he can see strange falter for a second. A microexpression.

“Wow, haven’t been called that in years.” Tony quickly straighten up and sheds the slight freak out. “Must be one hell of a people pleaser to call me that.” He flashes an easy smile.

“I like to think myself the opposite. I’ve never been one to try and please.”

“That’s a lie and you know it. And it worked. You’re already on my good side just with that.” Tony continues wearing the smile. Smiling makes people like him- or rather tolerate him better. “So why the doctor stuff?” Strange gives him a skeptical look.

“You have 3 PhDs. Why wouldn’t you have people call you doctor?”

“It never really stuck.”

“I can't imagine going through all that work just to have people not recognise that. ”

“Well, you did. About 99 percent of the time people call me Mr. or my name. I prefer people calling me by my name though. Mister is just… too strange.” He looks at strange while wearing a smile reminiscent of a shit-eating grin. Strange grimaces.

“I assume you know my name then.”

“Ohoho, the assuming type. What makes _you_ think that? That me, a billionaire, knows your name.”

“I’d expect a _billionaire_ to do their research before attending. After all, you were said to be donating.”

Tony looks at the man for a moment and lifts the sunglasses off his head to emphasize it. He squints at the man’s face. The annoyed tick of Strange’s eyebrows sends a pulse of slight satisfaction.

“And I’m supposed to know you? Wow, that’s a bit narcissistic.” Tony remarks and drops the glasses back onto his face.

“Pot meet kettle.” Strange replies dryly.

Tony has to bark out a laugh at that one. He can tell strange is struggling to not look annoyed at him and trying to keep a passive blank face. Strange’s face is pinched slightly at the brow and resembles someone who just ate a lemon. The image only makes him laugh harder.

“Okay, fine.” Tony laughs out while holding his hands in a mock surrender. Then he drops them and walks over to a ledge and places the cool flute onto the ledge at one of the walls. 

“Okay...?” Strange asks slightly confused.

“I, in fact, do know who you are.” Tony says. He kinda wants a kiddie cocktail right now. Then he can at least look like he’s drinking alcohol. “Pleasure to meet you, Doc.”

Strange glances at the hand briefly before glancing back up to look at Tony. He reaches out and grasps his hand for a handshake.

Tony glances down at the surgeon’s hands. He can't help but notice there’s no scars. Whatever caused them, happens later in the future then. Tony wonders what Strange of his timeline would do if he was in Tony’s position. A chance to avoid whatever accident that took his hands away from Strange. He wonders. For a bit too long and Tony realises and quickly lets go of Strange’s hand.

“ _Doctor_ Tony Stark.” Tony says with a wink. “You know where I work.”

“Doctor Stephen Strange. Neurosurgeon at Metro-General Hospital.”

“Oh, a fitting name for someone that strange.” Tony comments while Strange just gives him a look. 

“So, Doctor. How many puns have you heard about your name?”

“Don’t.” The man says flatly. Strange's eyebrows are lowered into a frown. 

“I bet I can come up with a few you haven’t heard.” Tony points to Strange's face while saying this. 

“I doubt you could.”

“You look like you’ve been tortured with puns. In a moment of grace, I shall spare you for now.” 

“Backing down, are we? Don’t think you can?”

“No, no, I can. Besides, any pun about your _strange_ name would be unoriginal. I’d rather be unique. So care to give me a few examples of what people have told you?”

“So you have no ideas? Even with my photographic memory, I’d like to banish those from my mind.”

“How many pickup lines do you get with your last name as a pun? I bet people on tinder would have a field day with that one.”

“Tinder?” _Oops, that hasn’t happened yet._

“Forget that, answer my question.”

“I’d have to think about it.”

“Why though? Didn’t you just say you had a photographic memory?”

“Thinking about puns would be a waste of brain power.”

“O-kay.” Tony says stressing the O. “I bet a neurosurgeon would know all about that.

“So, how has this gala been treating you?” Tony asks Strange.

“Small-talk? I hadn’t pegged you as that person for that kind of talk.” Strange raises an eyebrow. “What’s next? We’re going to talk about the weather?”

“Small-talk is talk. I’m trying to make conversation.”

“Oh? So what makes me so _striking_ that you decided to converse with me?”

“Converse? Odd choice of words and you initiated it, doc.”

“You were staring.” Strange sounds annoyed and Tony only grins wider.

“Staring is a strong word. I was looking in your general direction.”

“Eye contact? Remember?” Stranges waves at his eyes. 

“Ummm, sunglasses. Remember?” Tony waves his hand at his glasses repeating Strange's gesture.

“Why do you wear those inside?” Strange gestures to the glasses that remain rooted on his head.

“Don’t question me. You can only question me when you become a billionaire.”

“Such a shame.” Strange says in mock disappointment.

 

“Back to the original topic-”

“Small-talk? Or actual gala talk?” Strange asks in mock innocence and Tony’s eyebrows just lower.

“Shush, are you presenting tonight? I didn’t look at the scheduled speeches.”

“Yes, I’m one of my hospital’s representatives. I am one of the best in my field currently.”

“And I’m the leading weapons company. What a duo.” Tony says a bit sarcastically. 

“What a duo.” Strange repeats with just the same amount of sarcasm.

-

The conversation steers more towards research with the funding. Strange talks about working on a technique for nerve cell growth and laminectomy. It’s nice to know that Strange knows what he’s talking about. It quickly turns to all the other conversations he’s had but it was fun to quip with the man. He may be a bit biased towards the man. 

Eventually, Tony is called to another group and bids Strange goodbye and they both go off to join other groups. They exchange contact information and Strange ends up being one of the ones he doesn’t immediately archive.

Soon, the gala officials announce dining is to begin. Just on time too. Tony is starving. All he’s had so far was pizza he had from Stane. Might as well get food for this unpleasant experience. He starts following the wave of people that turn to enter the separate room with the dining area and stage on it. Only a few more hours until he can sleep… or work on suits some. He’ wanders around the area until he spots the area where he should be sitting. 

Tony allows himself a deep breath and starts to walk over to the table that’s currently empty. He reaches out to touch the plush white chair. He feels the soft material compress underneath his hands. 

The table is a round table with nameplates around in each seat. He takes a look at his own nameplates. It says his name and is embellished with a golden square border. He picks it up to feel the glossy sheen of the paper and moves it back and forth and watches how it catches the light. He looks at it for a second more before placing it down. Tony looks at the similar name tags decorating the table. A few names he knows and others he doesn’t. They’re placed strategically. People who are more likely to get onto his good side and the ones with the deep pockets will be sitting at the table.

People begin to file into the room even more. Tony was in the first wave of people. At this point Tony has taken a seat at his table. People come up to his table and sit down. The room becomes filled with chatter once more as more people join the dining area and make conversations. Tony begins fiddling with a fork that was neatly laid out on the table.

Tony decides it’s a good point to take his glasses off right now as more tablemates join him. The glasses slide off his face easily and merge with his watch. They start to talk with him and others, most likely about business. Introductions happen. Talks about research and funding. It’s all the same as before except they are being given food and sitting down.

-

The speeches start soon. The food has been served and about halfway eaten. The lights that hang overhead start to dim and the stage lights up. One by one people file onto stage, do a presentation, talk about their company, and why they want funding. Instead of paying attention he just fiddles with the glass of complimentary water he was given

He’s already decided who he was going to donate to. 

Some speeches are… mediocre. Some are very well done. Tony likes observing and seeing how well a person is able to present. It distracts him from falling into his mind. 

-

He donates to Metro-General hospital.

-

When the event is finally dismissed and all the speeches are done Tony feels dead on his feet. After all that _excitement_ he’s not sure if his mental age can keep up with him. Mabe his now physical body can (He is ten years younger) but now his mind is tired. Socializing with people who don’t care for him, just his money is exhausting. Pretending to fall into old habits is exhausting. He also hasn’t gotten a proper 8 hours of sleep in a while and for once he longs for it. 

For a while, before Thanos. He was starting to get better habits. Peter would tell him to sleep. So would Pepper. They both would always bring down food and make sure he eats it. Made sure he actually slept for more than a few minutes at a time and had at least a full sleep cycle. He may have fallen out of the better habits for now but he can still hear the scolding tone of Peter telling him to sleep despite the fact Peter was a hypocrite. 

It touched him honestly. Just to see a bottle of water with a neon orange sticky note with a smiley face telling him to stay hydrated. A container of spaghetti. An apple sitting at his desk, All the little things Peter, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy did to make sure for once he actually took care of himself. 

The bots helped too.

Friday was helpful. Friday was definitely more…. He doesn’t know what word to use but when confronted with something he can’t do, Jarvis would probably advise him not to while Friday would just find a way to do it. Jarvis would do the same… eventually. 

He misses all of them.

-

Happy drives him to his hotel. He’d elected to stay in New York for a day and then fly back to Malibu. He wanted to explore New-York a bit. The ride is silent. Happy can tell Tony’s not in the mood to talk.

The only words he ends up saying to Happy is a simple goodbye. He takes his suitcase with him. He enters the lobby, grabs his card. His movements are robotic due to his exhaustion. The lead leg has returned and he struggles to walk. He walks up to his hotel room in what he hopes is in a dignified manner. He might have stumbled a few times in the hallway and into the elevator. 

The elevator has a glass window that overlooks the city. The skyline is probably one of the things he misses most about New York. The night sparkles in the darkness. It may be dark outside but the city illuminates the light. People move out and about. Some going home, others the day is just beginning. He takes a moment to just look for once. A feeling of calmness flows over his mind and the tightly coiled knot of discomfort begins to loosen. 

His limbs begin to relax. His shoulders lose their tension. He clenches his jaw and he just lets everything relax. 

Tony unlocks the door with his card and it opens with a click. He grabs the handle and pushes it open and walks in. The lights are off and Tony doesn’t bother turning them on. The room is lit enough due to the light cast by the city around him. As he walks in he kicks off his shoes and sets off to find the bedroom. He opens a few doors. One leads to the bathroom. Another a closet. Food pantry. 

When he finally finds the door to the bedroom he opens it. It creaks open and Tony rests his hand on the door frame as he pulls off his suit pants. Tony looks up for a moment and looks at the room while shuffling his pants off. There’s a chair in the corner, the gigantic bed in the middle with a nightstand and a window on one of the walls that faces the side of the bed. 

Once he pulls off the pants he begins walking towards the gigantic bed in the middle of the room and peels off his jacket and shirt. He can’t be bothered to put on sleepwear right now. The expensive suit crinkles underneath his hands as he balls it up and throws it onto a chair that sits in the corner of the room before flopping onto the bed.

Tony collapses on the hotel room bed. The soft white sheets ruffle against his skin. For once he’s happy to sleep. His eyelids droop and his limbs become heavy as he sinks into the plush comforter fo the bed. It feels like a cloud as softness surrounds him. His limbs are sprawled out all over the bead taking up most of the bed. His body sighs in relief after not being in a proper bed for days. He should probably shower.

He rolls over towards the nightstand that also means he’s facing the window that covers the entire wall. He looks outside for a moment just looking at the shining lights before sighing. He plucks off his expensive watch that also acts as an Iron-man gauntlet with rudimentary nano-tech. He places it onto the nightstand and it hits it with a soft clink of metal on wood. Tony turns to lie flat on his back.

With a loud sigh, he pulls the comforter up to his chin and stares at the shadows of the ceiling. The wall that’s also a window casts light into the room giving it a soft hue of yellow. Tony reaches out lazily. He lets his hand dangle in the air towards the ceiling and stretches out his hand before grasping air in his palm. He looks at his closed fist for a few moments before bringing it back down to his side under the covers.

What a day.

“Night, J.” He says to the watch on the nightstand. He shuffles around for a few moments looking for a comfortable position. “Wake me up in a few.”

“Goodnight, Sire.” Jarvis’s voice comes from the watch. It’s a little quieter then he’s used to but it brings him comfort. Tony smiles at Jarvis before settling into the soft blanket around him.

His thoughts drift away from him as darkness takes over his vision. His eyelids close shit and he falls into a dreamless sleep.

-

Tony walks the familiar streets of New York. He winds through crowds of people to avoid touching them. He already decided he wanted to see New York, after all, when would he ever get an excuse like this again? He wanders around the place he inhabited for a good couple of years. He really misses this place and living the Malibu mansion has been jarring to his mind. 

He told Rhodey he might be late. At least he told Rhodey this time. Tony stifles a laugh.

He’s wearing a more casual set of clothes this time. Dark jeans with a black blazer paired with a red tee. He adjusts his sunglasses that rest on his nose as he weaves through the crowd. Chatter and voices fill the air and it’s loud. It’s the good type of loud though. 

The sky is a brilliant blue at midday and the sun beats down onto the asphalt roads. There are a few wisps of white clouds that dot the sky.

Tony walks through the streets with no purpose and sorta floats around looking and observing everything. Looking at things that he missed, things that were gone, and looking for things that were replaced. The sun makes his hair warm. If you touched it, it would be hot to the touch. It may be a little warm for his choice of attire but he can always take off the blazer. Tony Flicks down the watch that can call the suit(it’s in the plane.).

People move around him in all directions. Clicks of shoes. Voices speaking. People shouting and yelling. The city is busy and doing what a city does best. He misses the controlled chaos of living in a big town in an urban area with people just doing what they do. With people of all ages. With people from all different places. Some born here, others moved.

A wave of nostalgia flows over him and despite the chaos of the city everything feels calm.

That is until he hears the cries of a child.

A wail pierces the air. Not one of in pain but in distress. Tony curiously looks around until his eyes lay on the small for of a child in the middle of the crowd. The kid is rubbing his eyes as tears flow down his cheek. People walk around the kid, a few looking at him. He sees a woman leaning down to try and comfort the kid but the child only lets out an even louder sob and backs away from the lady. The lady seems to give up and walks away.

The kid is looking around wildly. His mop of brown fluffy hair flails around loudly as they look around. He seems to be shouting something. A panicked look of distress is present on their face. Tears stream down his face and the kids face is red. The boy’s face pulls on Tony’s parental heartstrings and he starts walking towards the distressed child.

As he gets closer he looks at the kid a bit more closely. The child has a brown mop of fluffy hair. He’s a small child. Can’t be that old. Probably under ten. Their shoulders tremble as the kid cries. The child is wearing a blue hoodie with a pair of khaki shorts and red sneakers. Tony’s eyes move towards the face of the young boy.

When Tony takes in the appearance of the child he chokes.

It’s Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had more dialogue written for stephen and tony but I decided to save those bits for a later date. The butterfly effect is a fun thing. 
> 
> So how was it? not super angsty this time(I think.) unlike last time. More of commentary on these events. I don't like writing dialogue unless it's important, gala conversations are not pivotal to the plot.
> 
> Endgame hurt me sooo much. I might just be writing fluff for the next chapter. Can't hurt Tony rn.
> 
> Like always, constructive criticism and feedback is always welcome! I'm always looking to improve! Mcu timeline is terrible so any inaccuracies just comment! Kudos fuel me(or just make me happy idk) so please leave one if you haven't!
> 
>  
> 
> Up Next: ;)


	6. Memories of Ash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony meets Peter as a child. Kids cry for the oddest of reasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how long this took! Exams caught up on me and I found myself with little time despite what I thought. Also had to eliminate at least 20 misuses of 'just' because it started popping up in my writing a lot. kinda like with the word 'like'.
> 
> Thankyou for over 1000 kudos like what??? I'm screaming??

_As he gets closer he looks at the kid a bit more closely. The child has a brown mop of fluffy hair. He’s a small child. Can’t be that old. Probably under ten. Their shoulders tremble as the kid cries. The child is wearing a blue hoodie with a pair of khaki shorts and red sneakers. Tony glances at the face of the young boy._

_When Tony takes in the appearance of the child he chokes._

_It’s Peter._

-

Tony does more than choke. He can’t believe it. He knew the kid was alive but seeing him in the flesh is so much different. He can feel his legs seizing up and his jaw going slack. A buzz settles into his ears as he stares at the crying kid. He clenches his fist lightly and Tony notices that his own hands are clammy with sweat. His throat becomes dry and devoid of any moisture.

How many times has he longed to see Peter? In the months he was dead how many times?

Too many.

Tony stares at the kid and his vision narrows and blurs. His breathing picks up lightly. Short puffs of air is all he can manage and his heart beats loudly in his ears. His hand trembles lightly.

He’s so young, _Nearly ten years younger. Not exactly thought._ The snap occurred almost a year before he came back. Honestly, every time he encounters someone he knew from his time he feels like everything is too much. Seeing Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and now Peter all alive without any of the trauma that occurred to them in the years that were erased is weird. Seeing them all fine, albeit their relationships aren’t as developed as they were (Ten years _were_ erased after all). 

Tony’s the only one who remembers the years that were erased(Maybe they weren’t he doesn’t know) and he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do with all the information he has. Seeing everyone he knows alive and happy is strange. It hurts though. Knowing that he’ll never have _his_ friends ever again. 

Tony doesn’t know what happened to the ten years that existed but don’t anymore. Too real to be a dream but there’s no trace of the events that happened. Erased? Perhaps. Multiverse? Time travel is confusing. Honestly, Tony doesn’t know but now isn’t the time to ponder the universe.

Tony wonders how badly his thoughts were twisted to mean something else he didn’t mean.

Tony’s just.. So happy Peter’s alive. He feels like he can cry from seeing the kid.

Scratch that. 

He’s crying. A slight hint of liquid drips down his face. At Least he’s wearing sunglasses to hide his red and puffy eyes right now. Tony brings a hand to touch his cheek lightly. He can feel the cool drop liquid on his fingertips. He brings his hand to glance at the tear as it glistens in the sun that beams down on him.

Of course, he’s crying.

And the kid’s also crying.

_Tony get your head out of the clouds. You’ve got a distressed child in front of you._

Tony snaps back into reality. Panic flashes through him, not at seeing Peter alive, but rather seeing him crying. He feels panic for Peter despite not knowing what is the cause of it. Kids cry for the weirdest of reasons but It hurts him to see the kid cry. 

He runs over to Peter. Tony might have nearly ran over a few people that were in his way as he navigated the crowd. A few people let out a shout of indignation as he pushed past him but he doesn't care. Tony makes his way over to the kid and stops in front of him. The boy’s sobs stop for a moment as Peter looks up at Tony. 

Peter is tiny. Like, really tiny. The kid barely makes it past his waist. Tony crouches down so he’s eye level with Peter. He flips his sunglasses to rest upon his head, ignoring the fact that his eyes were watery seconds ago.

It takes everything fiber of his being to not hug and coddle the kid until he’s not sad. He wants to hold the kid as he can. To confirm it’s really Peter and not a cloud of ash floating away in his hands. Not the kid he let down and who died because of him.

To just…

Right now he needs to calm down the panicking kid.

Tony gives Peter an easy smile to try and calm the boy. Peter’s round eyes look at him. They’re red and puffy. The kid’s face is stained with tears and tears still flow like a faucet down his tear stained cheeks.

If he had any doubts it was Peter, they’ve been erased. There’s no doubt that those eyes belong to Peter. The same face, a bit younger obviously but it resembles teenage Peter’s face with a little more baby fat though. The same nose. The same hair that he wants to ruffle his hand through. Tony lets out a soft smile as he thinks of his kid.

The Peter infront of him isn’t his kid right now. He’s a complete stranger to him.

It hurts.

Tony doesn't know what hurts more. Knowing Peter’s alive and safe but Peter knowing nothing about him or knowing Peter is gone but at least he was Tony’s kid.

“Hey kid.” Tony says gently to Peter whos still sobbing loudly. The boy’s watery eyes try to focus on him. Tony gives the kid a gentle smile to not scare the distressed child. “You doing okay?”

Peter doesn't respond but lets out a hiccup as he tries to suck in a breath. The kid’s breathing picks up and Peter’s shoulders start trembling more than before. Peter brings his hands close to his chest and tears well up with tears again. Peter lets out a little sob.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay kiddo.” Tony places a hand on Peter’s shoulder, probably a dumb thing to do with a stranger but he needs something to cement him in reality of Peter being there. Peter’s eyes look at his arms but the boy’s tense shoulders seem to relax a bit. Tony can feel the warmth from Peter’s tiny body and it’s a bit of a slap in the face.

At this point, he might as well sob with the kid as well. Not of panic, but relief. He won’t though, it wouldn't help the kid if there are two crying people.

He can feel the little trembles that Peter’s body gives off as he sobs. Peter starts to take big gulps of air. The breaths that the kid can take get cut off and Tony can tell he’s struggling to get air into his lungs. 

“I,” Hiccup. “C-Can’t” Peter stumbles out through tears. The boy tries to wipe away the waterfall flowing from his eyes. Tony removes his hand from Peter’s shoulders to look at the boy.

Peter’s brown watery eyes focus on Tony’s and the kid looks pathetic. His brown eyes are blown wide open in panic. Tears flow freely from the kid’s face like a river in a storm. The cheeks of his face are flushed and angry red. Snot drips from the kid’s nose and he hiccups. Peter sniffles loudly. Another ugly sound. Peter keeps taking deep breaths that get quicker in pace. All in all, it’s an ugly sight.

“Can you follow my breathing?” Tony asks Peter still speaking softly to the crying child. The crowd continues to walk around him. “It’ll help you feel better.”

Peter glances at him for a moment. Then to everyone all around him. The kid’s breaths are still short and fast. His chest rises up and down quickly. Too quickly and the kid is on the verge of hyperventilating. He needs to calm down the kid down a bit. Maybe a lot.

Jeez, he never had been good with kids.

Or anyone crying.

_Especially kids_

The boy doesn’t say anything but nods with a hiccup following it.

“Okay, just follow my breathing.” Tony places his hand on his chest and takes exaggerated breaths and Peter still cries but attempts to follow his breathing.

“In, and out. In and out.” Each sentence comes with an exaggerated inhale and exhale so Peter can follow over all the noise around him. Peter’s breathing follows his but still struggles to follow the long inhale and exhale.

Inhale

One two three four five six seven.

Exhale

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven.

Inhale

One two three four five six seven.

Exhale

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven.

Tony listens and watches Peter’s breathing. It’s stuttered and cuts off every now and then as he gulps in air. It’s getting better. Peter lets out a hiccup and Tony repeats the exaggerated breathing.

Inhale

One two three four five six seven.

Exhale

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven.

Inhale

Exhale.

Tony continues to do this while Peter’s breathing begins to calm down a bit. The boy is no longer gulping for air but his breaths are still quick in pace. Peter is trying though..

After a few rounds of doing that with Peter the breathing pace begins to return to normal and the kid has calmed down considerably. 

It must be a sight to see Tony Stark, of all people, comforting a crying child in the middle of the sidewalk.

“There you go.” Tony says to the kid who looks at him with swollen red eyes. 

Peter’s eyes are still a bit watery and gleam with moisture. His cheeks have multiple tear stains on them. While Peter’s breathing has returned to somewhat normal he’s still breathing heavily

“Did something happen, kid?” 

“I-I can’t find my a-aunt.” Peter nearly whispers and tries to wipe his face with his sleeve. The young voice hits Tony like a freight train. The boy’s voice sounds like someone took sandpaper to his throat. It’s so young sounding. Tony didn’t think Peter’s voice could have been even younger and well, he was wrong. 

Peter hiccups again and his eyes start shining once again. His mouth is wobbling as he tries to speak more and his breathing picks up slightly.

Oh dear.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Tony quickly says trying to avoid his own panic in him. He’s no good at comforting crying children. Tony waves his hand in a reassuring gesture. He resists the urge to hug Peter. “It’s okay, kiddo.”

“I-I can’t find her or my uncle.” 

He’d do anything for the kid to prevent him from having anymore sadness and grief in his life. Peter deserves every good thing in the world. He never deserved all the pain the world threw at him.

No kid does.

“Like I said, it’s going to be okay kid. I’ll help you find them.” Tony says with a reassuring tone hoping to comfort the crying child.

“You will?”

“Yeah, kid, yeah.” _Anything for you._

Peter’s shoulders have loosened considerably. All that's left of the tears are stains on his cheek and watery eyes. The trembling has ceased but the boy’s face is still red.

“So kiddo, what happened? If we retrace your step we can find them, They’re probably looking for you as much as you are.” Tony asks Peter.

“I’m not supposed to go with strangers.” Peter says with a tiny voice that still sounds like it’s been rubbed with sandpaper.

“Smart.” Tony says and Peter smiles slightly. Peter sniffles again.

“What’s the rules again?” Tony looks up at the sky in thought while he’s crouched on the ground next to Peter. Peter gives him a questioning look. “If you’re lost…”

“Stay where you are?” Peter asks hesitantly with a scratchy voice.

“Bingo, or a trusted adult. Which I am not. Where did you lose them, kiddo?” Peter’s face scrunches up as he says kiddo before returning to a neutral state.

“I just… I don’t know.”

“You know, kid.” Peter stares at the ground in thought.

“I was walking with them. Near that building over there. I think” Peter raises his hand and points toward a building a few blocks away. The boy’s eyes have started tearing again. “I saw something really cool! Like really cool!” The boy’s face turns into excitement before going back into a frown.

“I went to see it and it couldn’t have been more than a minute but…”

Peter sniffles again and wipes his nose with his tear stained sleeve.

“Hey, It’s going to alright, kiddo.” Tony pats Peter’s shoulder softly. 

“They were gone.” Peter says with a wobbly voice and tears threaten to spill out of his eyes. “I-I Looked everywhere and then I got lost even more. I thought I saw my Aunt May so I r-ran after her but it wasn’t her. Now I don’t know where I am.” The boy’s tiny’s hand clutch at the bottom of his blue hoodie as his eyes water again.

“No need to cry, we’ll find them.” Tony tries to give Peter a bright smile. Peter looks up at Tony with wide eyes.

“So what do they look like?”

“My,” Peter sniffles. “Aunt she’s… She’s wearing a striped shirt with…”

“With?”

“With jeans and glasses. She also has really long brown hair.”

“Anything else?” Peter shakes his head no. Tony stares at Peter for a moment. “Okay, and you’re Uncle?” Tony readjusts the glasses on his head and Peter watches the movement.

“My uncle has grey hair kind styled like yours!” Peter points to the top of his head.

“My hair?”

“Yeah! It kinda goes like…” Peter swipes a hand over his head going backwards. “Woosh.”

Tony can't help but laugh at the young child’s antics. Peter seems to take comfort in the man laughing and Peter smiles slightly.

“He also wears glasses.” 

The descriptions are vague but he knows what May looks like. If he spots her, he’ll call her over. 

“Jarvis, you got that?” Tony speaks to the watch on his hand. Peter looks at the watch in confusion.

“Noted. I’ll keep a look out for them.” Jarvis responds from the watch. The voice is slightly compressed due to the watch but that was a fix for a later time. Tony smiles at the watch and Peter’s eyes fly even more open.

Tony just puts a finger to his mouth and makes an ‘shh’ motion. Peter stares at the watch.

“Thanks for the info, kid. I’ll keep a lookout for them, In the meantime, do you want to go somewhere else, being in a crown isn’t a good idea.” Tony says looking around the area. Peter’s eyes follow his. The kid’s eyes are still somewhat red but he’s calmer. He probably should get Peter out of the crowd, Peter seems a bit antsy still. Somewhere he can still see everyone and they can see him.

“Maybe out of this crowd? I think your Aunt and Uncle will be able to see you more clearly if you’re not surrounded by adults. We don’t have to go far.”

Peter nods.

“That’s probably a good idea. I don’t like crowds.” Peter says in a small voice.

He probably should find someone to help the kid. Help find his aunt is the best plan of action but…

He doesn’t trust anyone else with Peter.

Tony nods and smiles at the kid warmly. Tony scans around through the patches of people on the sidewalk for a better place to wait for Peter’s Aunt and Uncle. Tony’s eyes spot a bench nearby that’s empty. It’s not very far and in an area where it’s easy to see them.

“How about that bench over there.” Tony points to the bench a few buildings down. It sits next to a tree in the shade.

“Okay.”

“Alright, kiddo. Do you need any help getting there?”

Peter shakes his head no and wipes his nose and sniffles again.

“I can walk.” His eyes are still a light pink and his face is lightly flushed from crying.

“You sure?” Tony asks the kid. Peter nods. “Okay, champ, let’s go on over then.” Tony stands up from his crouched position.

Peter starts walking over to the bench. His red sneakers hitting the ground with little thuds. People having idle chatter and walking surround them. People walk around them and Tony follows Peter closely and weaves through the crowd as he follows Peter. As they near the bench Tony gets a little separated from Peter. There are fewer people around them and no longer a gigantic wave of people walking. He’s a few feet and nothing more away from Peter but it’s enough of a distance that he can’t reach Peter. He watches helplessly as the red shoe of the boy fumble over a crack in the concrete.

Peter trips.

Tony reaches out to grab Peter before he falls. 

He doesn’t and Peter falls to the pavement with a soft ‘oof’. Peter falls onto his hands and knees before moving his back to sit on his knees.

For a moment they are both in shock. Tony freaking out and Peter sitting there on the pavement looking stunned. Tony May not be freaking out externally but internally he is because his kid just tripped on the pavement and _oh my god is he okay?_ Tony quickly runs over to him. Peter is staring blanking into space who appears to be processing what had happened.

Okay. Okay. No need to panic. He’s probably fine. _But what is he broke his arm? You’ve seen kids break their arm by tripping over a sprinkler. What's the chance of that happening?_ Is he going to need stitches? Is that _blood?!_ Wait no that’s a leaf. How bad is it?

Tony kneels down next to Peter and picks up one of Peter’s arms that hang limply at the kid’s side. Peter’s wide brown eyes turn to look at him. Tony picks up the hand and tries to shush his panic when he looks at the hand that only a little red from the impact. He does the same with the other hand concluding that his hands are fine. That doesn't exactly settle Tony’s panic though.

“Kid, can you show me your leg?” Tony asks Peter gently. 

“Huh? My what?” Peter seems to snape out of his daze.

“Your leg.”

“Oh! Right.” Peter sits back and unfolds his leg. He winces slightly with the movement. Peter grabs his knee and holds it. “Ow.”

Tony tries his best to not show that he’s freaking out because he’s already too far along to stop the panic. 

Tony removes the hand from Peter’s knee and touches it to get a closer look at the damage. It’s only lightly scraped and at worst, needs a bandaid. Tony sighs with relief and lets his hands drop to his sides.

“Do we need to cut it off?” Tony asks Peter with a _very serious_ voice before looking at Peter.

Peter looks at Tony for a moment and then to his knee and then back to Tony. Peter lets out a giggle. Tony cherishes the scene in front of him, a scene he hasn’t seen in months. For once, Tony forgets the pain that comes with the memories and remembers the kid that was a dork.

Tony can’t help but let the fond grin spread onto his face.

“So, we don’t need to cut it off?”

“Of course not! It’s just a scrape! I’m okay!” Peter says with a slightly scratchy voice. 

“Well, why wouldn’t you be?” Tony stands up from his kneeling position and dusts off his jeans. He offers a hand to the small boy. “Can you walk?”

“I’m not a baby! It was on my hands and knees! I can still walk!” Peter glares at him but it’s one that he knows is playful. Peter stands up as if to prove his point.

“Already rebeling? You aren’t even a teenager yet.” Peter can't help but laugh and then Peter sticks his tongue out. “How old are you anyway, kid?” 

“M’ not a kid! I’m seven!” Peter protests loudly attracting a few stares from some people.

“Still a kid.”

“Noo!”

“What’s your name then?”

“Uh.” Peter hesitates. He looks to the people around him before focusing in again on Tony. Peter coaxes Tony down to his height. Tony gets the message and crouches down.

“I’m all ears, bud.”At ‘bud’ Peter scrunches his face up. Tony leans his head towards Peter.

“I’m not supposed to tell strangers my name but, I think you’re okay.” Peter whispers to him. His shining brown eyes dart around with excitement.

“Just okay?” Tony pinches his eyebrows in confusion. “You sure about that, _kid_?”

Peter lets out an annoyed huff and grumbles something that sounds like ‘not a kid.’

“You’re better than okay!” Peter shouts too close to his ear. “Great actually! Like you’re super cool!”

“Am I?” This time it’s genuine confusion. His Brow pinches again and he brings his hand to rest on his chin in thought.

Peter nods with vigor before leaning close to his ear. He cups his mouth to whisper into his ear.

“It’s Peter!” The boy whisper-shouts in his ear. 

“Peter?” Tony turns his head to look at the boy who’s smiling brightly. Peter’s eyes are still blotchy but shine with excitement and he looks ready to burst. Tony smiles at the kid because his smile is contagious and he can’t help but let the corners of his mouth turn up. He sometimes forgets how good a genuine smile feels. 

Children are amazing creatures.

“What about yours? I won’t tell anyone if you want! I can keep a secret.” Peter mimes locking his mouth and throwing away the ‘key’.

“Okay, kiddo.” Tony just smiles as Peter’s face scrunches up at ‘kiddo.’

“It’s Tony Stark.” Peter looks at him. Brown eyes meeting brown as Peter looks at him in thought before lighting up.

“I like that name! It’s cool!” Peter smiles brightly. “It sounds familiar.”

“Thanks, Peter.” Peter perks up at the sound of his name. “You probably have heard it from somewhere.”

“You’re welcome Mister Stark!”

Oh no. He’s back at the beginning. Peter and his need to be unrelenting with his politeness.

“Mister Stark?” Tony looks at Peter with a raised brow. “Call me Tony.”

Peter shakes his head no very aggressively. His brown hair flops with the movement. 

“Aunt May says I have to be polite to adults and be respectful.”

“Even if they’re an ass-” _Whoops_ can’t use that word. “I mean jerk.”

“Yeah, Uncle Ben told sometimes people are mean but you just gotta be nice back to them!”

“Wow, a philosopher in training. But, still. Why mister?”

Tony has a feeling the answer would be the same as teen Peter.

“Because it’s respectful! May says I’m not supposed to call adults by their first name, like my teacher Mrs. Adams.”

Tony sighs a little on the inside. His legs are getting tired from crouching.

“You’re being raised well. I barely had an inch of manners in me when I was a kid.”

“Really?” Peter tilts his head

“Yep.”

“Wow, that doesn’t seem like you.”

“Weird, eh? Now come along now, before your bench gets taken.”

“Oh, right!” Peter glances up at Tony. “Wanna race?”

It’s only a few meters left but Peter seems to bounce up and down. The boy grins brightly.

“Uh.” Tony says smartly. He looks down at his leather shoes which aren’t really running shoes. Peter looks up at him with expectant eyes.

How could he say no to Peter though?

“Sure.”

“Yay! Okay!” Peter cheers throwing a hand into the air.

“On your marks, get set, Go!” Peter yells out too quickly for Tony to comprehend it. Tony is left stunned after he watches Peter dash off.

“Hey, wait!” Tony yells as his brain kicks him into action and he races after Peter.

“It’s a race! There’s no waiting, Mr. Stark!” 

-

He lets Peter win.

-

“Okay, okay.” Tony pretends to pant heavily. “You won.”

“Yes!” Peter jumps up and laughs in victory.

“Weren’t you crying a moment ago?”

“I guess? I feel a lot better now!” Peter grins.

“That’s good. Now let’s go rest. This old guy needs his rest.” 

“You’re not old!”

“Thanks but I am, I May not look the part. Wait, I do. I am old.”

“I disagree.”

“Well kiddo, I disagree too.”

Tony sits down onto the bench with a huff. He relaxes his body into the wooden bench. Peter hops onto the bench and sits next to him. Tony looks around at the people walking on the pavement around him. The crisp scent of the trees around them mixed with the city smog. The shade that covers his eyes but not his feet. The shine of the leather shoes sitting in the shade. The boy sitting next to him and the warmth of the kid. A breeze flutters past making their hair flow with it.

“See, I’m old.”

Peter lets out a huff of annoyance. Tony laughs loudly. 

-

“Do you like to do anything, Peter?”

They’re sitting on the bench with Tony leaning back into the wooden bench. Tony has his arms resting on the back of the bench. The sunglasses remain on his head. The shade from the street they sit under shields his eyes from the bright sun. Peter sits down next to him and also appears to be observing the people that walk past them with mild curiosity in his eyes. Peter’s head turns to him.

“Like...what?” Peter tilts his head. His curls bounce with the movement.

“Like, hobbies and sports if you play any.”

“I really like science! I’m not very good at sports.” Peter responds with a grin.

“I like science as well, it’s my career. Actually, I’m more of an engineer but science is a broad category.”

“Really? That’s so cool! I’d love to become an engineer and make stuff to help people! I’ve read all my science text books and Aunt May is supposed to take me to the library to read more! She helps me read some of the hard words but I can manage!”

“An engineer?”

Peter nods vigorously.

“Yeah! I wanna be one and make a bunch of cool inventions.” Peter spreads his arms wide in an arc and Tony laughs.

“Have you made anything yet?”

“I made this really cool thing the other day with a kit my uncle bought me. I didn’t follow the instructions but I made an even cooler thing out of it! It was a robot. It kinda flails around though. I’m not very good at robotics yet.”

“Regardless of your skill, kid, that’s super cool.”

“Thanks!” Peter smiles brightly.

“You want to help people?”

“M-hm! I wanna be an engineer so I can make stuff to help people! When I grow up I’m gonna help as many people as I can!”

“Nice motivation.” 

Peter smiles and goes silent for a moment. His face scrunches in thought before springing to life again.

“Mr. Stark,” Tony looks at the kid raising his brow at the kid in acknowledgement. “You said you were an engineer,” Tony nods at the kid. “What have you made?”

Peter moves closer to Tony in excitement.

“Okay, I’ll show you.” Tony brings his arm towards Peter. “This is the best thing I’ve created.”

Tony rolls up his sleeve to expose the expensive looking watch on his arm. The metal of the watch shines slightly with the light around it. The inside of the watch has one major clock with two clocks inside of the watch for different time zones. Tony watches the ticking red hand of the larger clock moves each second. The watch itself is a silver combined with gold. 

Peter looks at the watch in slight confusion.

“It’s a watch?” Peter asks his face twisting into confusion. “What’s it do?”

“Not the watch itself, but what’s in the watch.” Tony gives Peter a grin. He May be a bit dramatic right now but he’s Tony Stark, he’s allowed to be.

“What’s in it then?”

“Jarvis, you gonna show yourself or not?” Tony looks down to the watch and sees that it flared to life. The glass on the watch has become a black and blue interface.

“Apologies Sire, I cannot read minds.” Jarvis says from the watch and the objects in the interface move with his voice.

“It talks?” Peter looks at the watch and Tony moves his hand to be closer to Peter. Peter eyes look up to him and then the watch.

“More than that, Peter. Much more.” He extends his hand to the curious child knowing exactly what the look meant. Peter quickly grabs Tony’s hand with his own tiny hands. 

“Peter, meet Jarvis. He’s an AI, pretty advanced for today's AI standards if you ask me.”

“An AI?” Peter taps the watch. 

“Go ahead, introduce yourself.” Tony motions to the watch with his free hand.

“Introduce myself? Oh okay! I’m Peter. Nice to meet you.” Peter says to the watch while staring at it.

“Hello, Peter. I am Jarvis.”

“Hey, he’s the thing you were talking to earlier!” Peter exclaims nearly jumping from his seat.

“Yep, that’s Jarvis, he’s a bit a robot butler.”

“Why did he note my aunt and uncle though?”

“Oh, I’m having him look for your aunt and uncle based on your descriptions through the cameras here.” Tony points to one of the street cameras at one of the intersections nearby. “Though with millions of people it’s kinda hard to do.”

“Through the cameras? Isn’t that only for the police and government?” 

Tony brings his finger to his mouth and goes ‘shh’ while grinning at Peter. 

-

“Why is he named Jarvis?”

“Jarvis? It’s actually J A R V I S but that’s a mouthful. His actual name is even longer and even more of a mouthful. Jarvis is short for ‘Just a rather very intelligent system’.” Tony tells Peter who scrunches his face slightly.

“That's a weird acronym.” Peter comments.

“Every good project needs to have a ridiculous acronym behind it.”

-

“So what does Jarvis do?” Peter asks Tony who gestures to the watch with a smile.

“My main purpose is to help Sir.” Jarvis responds to his question rather than Tony

“By sir you mean Mr. Stark right?”

“Correct, me and the other ‘bots’ help in the workshop.”

“Other bots? Who are the other bots?” 

“Dum-E, Butterfingers, and U are the other bots. They aren’t like me but rather are robotic arms who assist in the workshop when building a project.”

“Wow! Mr. Stark your workshop seems so cool!” Peter looks up to Tony. Peter’s eyes are lit up in excitement. 

“It is. One of my favorite places to be actually.” Tony says with a smile.

“If I had a workshop I don’t think I’d ever leave it.”

“You’ll have to sleep and eat at some point.” Tony says and he ruffles the young kid’s hair. The boy’s face scrunches as he lets out a squeak and giggles.

“Sire, saying that makes you a hypocrite.” Jarvis pipes up from the watch. “You practically _live_ in the workshop.”

“Jarvis don’t ruin my reputation.” Tony says and glares at the watch on his arm.

“Reputation?” Jarvis seems to almost tease Tony from the watch and Peter giggles.

 

“Nevermind, forget that J.”

“With all due respect sir, I never forget anything.”

“I know I _created_ you.”

Peter giggles as Tony glares at his watch. From an onlooker, it would be a very interesting sight. A man glaring at his watch with a kid giggling next to him. 

With Peter laughing Tony can’t help but feel the urge to laugh. Tony ends up laughing with Peter and they both start to laugh. It ends up being a cycle where one laughs, stops then laughs again because the other is laughing.

“J, you’re off the hook for now.” Tony says with a grin.

“I am honored.” Jarvis replies from the watch.

“Oh, shush.”

“Hey, Jarvis?” Peter asks. His voice sounds much more alive than before. The boy’s eyes are no longer swollen and are now the regular white. His cheeks are flushed from laughing. There’s a big grin resting on his face.

“Why is he Jarvis and not ‘Mr’ Jarvis?” Tony pulls his face into a frown.

“Because his name’s an acronym.” Peter answers with a flat voice.

Tony lets out a huff and rolls his eyes while Peter begins to giggle.

-

Tony finds himself falling into an easy conversation with the kid. The topics flow from one to another with ease and there’s never a dull moment. The pain is there but Tony finds it manageable by just talking with the easily excitable kid. Tony smiles warmly at the boy’s enthusiasm for everything. Tony ends up doing most of the listening and giving inputs every now and then.

Honestly, he’d do anything to protect the kid. He wants to spend as much time as he can with Peter for as long as he can.  
-

“Peter!” A woman yells out. Panic wavers her voice and Tony looks up automatically from his conversation with Peter to see a woman running towards them. Peter perks up instantly. Her face is twisted in panic and her face is flushed red. Her breath comes out in short puff and the woman’s eyes are blown wide open. 

It’s May Parker.

“Aunt May!” Peter yells back to the woman. He turns to Tony. “It’s her! My aunt!”

Peter glances at Tony for a moment as if asking for permission. Tony tilts his head towards the woman running to them. Peter gives Tony a toothy smile and leaps off the bench. 

“Aunt May!” Peter yells as he flings himself at the woman who stopped and crouches down to catch Peter.

They make contact with May eating a soft oof as she nearly topples over from the weight of a 70 pound object being flung at her. May wraps her arms tightly around the boy. From Peter’s face, Tony can only guess that Peter is being crushed by the hug. Tony sits on the bench unsure of what to do. He starts fiddling with the wooden splinters on the bench.

“I thought we lost you! Where were you? One minute you’re here and then you’re gone!” 

“May, you’re choking me!” Peter squeal out while trying to escape the hug. May loosens her grip and brings her hand to cup Peter's face. Tony steps off the bench and walks to stand behind Peter from a respectful distance away.

“I’m just so glad you’re okay. I thought the worst happens to you when we couldn’t find you.” There’s a beginning of tears in her eyes. Peter smiles at her.

“I’m okay! I just stayed where I was so you could find me.”

May laughs with a wet laugh. Her thumbs rum at Peter’s face softly and Peter laughs with her. A man quickly runs up to May and stops a few feet behind the two. He looks like he’s been running.

“Mr. Stark helped a lot. He told me to stay nearby the area I was lost so you guys could find me!” Peter chirps in May’s hand. May’s face twists into confusion and then she finally notices Tony standing behind Peter. Tony shifts a little underneath her gaze. His shirt collar is a bit too tight and his fingers fidget with the hem of his sleeves.

The woman’s face frowns as she recognizes Tony. Her hands fall from Peter’s face to rest at her sides and Tony can see May tensing. Tony shifts his body into a more relaxed position. He lets his shoulders relax and his hands rest in his jean pockets. The man, probably Uncle Ben also stares at him as they both realize who he is.

Peter continues to ramble despite the atmosphere shift.

“Mr. Stark is really cool! I got lost and he helped a lot. We talked about science. Mr. Stark is like really smart and his AI is really cool!” Peter rambles on and Tony can feel the atmosphere crushing him. Each word makes May and Ben stare at him a little more. The two exchange glances from him to Peter and then back to each other. 

Peter stops talking for a moment and finally seems to notice the drop. It’s quiet except for the sounds of the city around them.

“Mr. Stark was it?” May asks Tony but it also seems to be directed towards Peter.

“That’s me.” Tony answers with a small nod of his head. He has the urge to put the sunglasses back onto his face.

“Peter, can you tell me what happened?” May asks Peter but her eyes never leave Tony.

“I..” Peter glances down at the ground for a moment before flicking back up. “I got lost and I was crying because I thought I lost... “ Peter cuts himself off for a moment. “Mr. Stark helped calm me down and then I remembered the rule to stay in place. So Mr. Stark stayed with to make I was safe until you found me!” Peter seems to shift from troubled to grinning brightly in the spanse of one sentence.

May looks at Tony skeptically as if unsure on whether to believe him or not. May stands up from her crouched position. Tony watches as she gently coaxed Peter’s hand into her hand. May puts herself in front of Peter, even if it’s only slightly Tony can tell she's shielding Peter. 

“I’m May Parker, this is my husband Ben Parker.” May says with a polite tone. She wears a strained smile on her face as she thanks Tony. “Thankyou for finding him.”

“Tony Stark” Tony replies just as polite. “And it was nothing.”

“Pete, let's get going.”

“Okay.” Peter mumbles slightly. His face has dropped as he looks at Tony and then to Ben.

“Come on, we can go do whatever you want to make it up to you.” Ben Parker looks down at Peter with a grin. Peter nods but still frowns.

“Bye, Mr. Stark!” Peter says to him still looking dejected. 

“Bye, kid.”

The family looks at him one last time before turning and walking away.

Tony feels a pain in his chest. His stomach twists. As he watches them walk away for a couple of seconds a mass amount of emotions fly through him. His face falls slightly. Tony watches for a moment before smiling slightly at the trio before turning away to walk the opposite direction. To where? He’s not sure, just not here. 

Peter is alive and safe though. That’s one thing to be happy about and they might be friends. Tony’s determined to keep things that way.

Soft footsteps echo from behind him. Tony turns to see Peter running towards him. The boy’s arms flailing around as he runs. His brown hair whipping around. The red shoes hitting the concrete with each step. Peter’s blue hoodie flying with the wind. Tony hears the surprised voice of Ben and May and looks to their shocked faces as Peter runs towards him at full speed.

“Um, Mr. Stark!” Peter says with his high pitched voice.

“Yeah, kid?” Tony calls out to Peter who’s a few meters away now.

The kid skids to a stop in front of him. His hair is a frazzled mess of curls now. Tony watches Peter as he pants lightly from running. The red flush on his cheek deepens in color.

“I didn’t say goodbye properly!” the boy wheezes out but with a grin on his face. “It was really nice to meet you and thank you for helping me!”

“No problem, Peter.” Peter smiles.

“I also wanted to say I really like your sunglasses. I know I didn't say that earlier but I just noticed and thought they were really-”

“If that’s the case, you can have them.”

“I, uh… What?” Peter looks at him with wide unbelieving eyes. The once animated kid seems to have frozen.

“You can have them if you want them.”

“Mr. Stark, I can't do that!”

“Kid, relax, it’s a gift. Accept it.”

Before Peter can protest anymore Tony kneels down to Peter’s height. The boy stares at him with wide eyes as Tony plucks his glasses off his head and presents it to Peter. 

“Here, I think they’ll suit you.” Tony comments while Peter stares at him in an almost catatonic state. 

“Thankyou!” Peter yells loudly, a bit too loud given the stares a few of the passersbys directed at them. Peter face flushes and Tony just lets out a laugh.

Tony maneuvers the glasses and places them on Peter’s face. The nose bridge is a couple of centimeters too wide for the small button nose Peter has. The ends of the arms hand off his head by at least an inch. Due to the size of the huge frames it almost looks like one of those tacky large glasses from dollar tree. It’s an adorable sight though. Peter tilts his head slightly and the glasses fall with it. Now the glasses are half hanging off his face.

The way the glasses fell off of his face makes Peter looks like a librarian with the glasses sitting low on the nose. Tony has to suppress a snicker but lets the ends of his mouth curl up in a smile. The boy is looking at the glasses that rest on his face in awe. A bit of disbelief is mixed in with Peter’s expression on his face. The wide eyes are still there as Peter reaches up to touch the frames with his tiny hands.

“You’ll grow into them.” Tony doesn’t fight the grin that takes over his face. “Though, Maybe a smaller size for now would be best.” Tony reaches both his hands out to touch the glasses.

“Mr. Stark! I’m a big kid! This size is fine.” Peter jumps back a little nearly losing his balance. The sunglasses don’t fare as well as Peter and they fall off his face. Tony watches as Peter’s face expresses multiple emotions in the spanse of a second. The glasses nearly hit the ground but Tony swoops out an arm to catch the glasses before they make impact with the pavement.

“Whoa there.” Tony chuckles lightly as he waves the glasses at Peter. Peter is looking at him with wide eyes. “Don’t worry, these can survive a bullet but, see my point kid?”

Tony reaches out to secure the sunglasses onto Peter’s face again who looks relieved. The boy's eyes are wide open and his face seems to shift between excitement and disbelief. Tony places the glasses on the kid’s face and adjusts them to fit better. Once the arms of the frame settle onto the boy’s ears Tony brings one of his hands to Peter’s hair. He runs his hand one through the boy’s unruly mess of curls before ruffling it.

“Hey!” Peter squeaks as his face scrunches as he giggles. 

Tony removes his hand from Peter’s even messier hair.

“Alright, alright. You can keep the big kid size. Just be careful with them okay? If you ever lose them send mail to SI or wherever.” Tony smiles at Peter. “Once, you get bigger they’ll fit just fine. Okay?”

Peter nods vigorously.

“Thank-you Mr. Stark!”

“I think you've kept your aunt and uncle waiting.” Tony stands up and pats Peter on the back. Peter’s shoulders slump slightly. “Best not to keep them waiting. Run along now.”

Instead of leaving Peter rams himself into Tony. He gets no warning as Peter collides with his stomach like a bullet. The boy’s small arms wrap around him and Tony lets out a soft grunt of surprise as he nearly loses his balance. Tony is stunned for a few moments as Peter attaches himself to Tony.

Peter is warm.

Tony tries his best to return the hug but the boy is barely past his hip height. He wraps his arms around the small child. Peter seems insistent on not letting go and a soft smile is tugged onto Tony’s face.

It’s nice.

“Thanks.” Peter’s voice is muffled by Tony’s stomach.

“It’s nothing, kiddo.”

“Can I see you again?” Peter looks up at him with his brown eyes while still hugging Tony as tight as his little arms can manage.

“Maybe kid, Maybe.” Tony takes one of his hands and pats Peter on the head. Peter frowns slightly but then smiles again.

“Maybe is better than no.” 

“Smart.” Tony comments while smiling widely. His cheeks kinda hurt from smiling, but it’s a good ache. “Don’t keep them waiting, kiddo. Skedaddle.”

Peter smiles and nods. The boy let’s go of Tony and the loss of warmth is noticeable. Tony watches the boy wave and runs off to his Aunt and Uncle. The two in question, are looking at him with an unreadable look. Aunt May has her eyes open wide and her mouth is slightly agape while her eyebrows are furrowed. 

The pair look down at Peter and start talking to him. Tony can only hear vague words of their conversation. Peter notices him staring and gives him a wave before talking looking back up to his Uncle.

He didn’t realize how much this would hurt.

Deciding he’s not one to eavesdrop(That’s a lie.) he turns around and makes his way to leave. A tap on the shoulder stops him. He turns and is met with the face of May Parker. Her brows are slightly furrowed and her forehead is creased. A slightly strained smile is drawn onto her face as their eyes meet. Tony can’t help but raise his eyebrow up questioningly at her in confusion.

“Do you have a moment to talk?” May asks him and Tony does his best not to let his stress show on his face. Tony’s eyes dart to Peter that stands behind May a couple of feet back and is currently engrossed in a conversation with Ben.

“Uh, Yeah?” Tony places his hands in his jean pockets. His fingers run over a quarter sitting in there. 

“I’ll get to the point. I don’t really like you.” May says. Her eyes tilt downward and she places her hands on her hips. She shrugs slightly as she speaks. The conversation is reminding him of the one about ‘Why is my child Spider-man and why are you allowing this?’

“Valid.” The grooves of the coin calm him slightly. May’s brows furrow more at his comment. “The media, doesn't give me the best rep.”

“Imagine. I’m looking all over for my kid who has disappeared and then I see Tony Stark a weapons developer, talking to _my_ kid.” May runs a hand through her hair. Her face is pinched slightly. As far as first impressions go, this is certainly worse than the first time he met her.

“Well, you left out a certainly _worse descriptions_ of me.” Tony comments. “As I said, the media doesn't give me the best rep, but leaving a child crying in the middle of the street? I May be an asshole but I would never be mean to a child.”

May nods slightly. Before glaring at him.

“I just want you to know, that if you did anything to hurt Peter or had ill intentions I will _personally make sure it is my life goal to make you suffer._ ” May’s lip curls up and her eyes burn with a scalding fire. 

“I’m far from the perfect role model. I know that. I make weapons after all. But, Parker, I wouldn’t hurt a kid intentionally.” 

They both go into an uncomfortable silence.

“I didn’t think you did. Peter, he trusts you and he’s been through a lot. The fact that he’s so young, it doesn’t help at all.” May sighs and grasps her forehead slightly. “He doesn’t trust easily.”

Tony’s throat has gone dry and no matter how hard he tries his mouth doesn’t want to form the words he wants to say. He nods instead.

“He May not be my kid biologically, but Peter is my kid in every other way.” The words May speaks resonates with Tony. 

He misses the Peter he knew. The dorky teenager just trying to make the world better. The obnoxiously colored sticky notes. The random lego sets he’d find all over the place. Random pieces of homework sprawled all over the compound. All the things that made Peter, _Peter_.

He misses it.

It’ll never be the Peter he knew but he’ll be damned if he let any harm come to the predecessor of his kid.

A bittersweet smile finds its way onto his face.

“You care for him a lot.” Tony says softly. “You’re raising him well. He rambled on about how he must call me ‘Mister’ despite me saying it's okay not to.” May lets out a laugh.

“Did he? It’s one of the things we’ve been rather through in enforcing. Glad to see it’s not going to waste.”

“He’s a smart one too.”

“Too much at times. Some of the things he has me read I barely understand myself but he seems to do just fine.”

“It’s good that he has people who support him.”

“Thankyou.”

“What for?”

“For making sure he’s safe. For using your time on Peter. I’m grateful for that.”

“It really was nothing.” Tony waves his hands out in front of him. 

May taps his shoulder light to stop him. May looks over her shoulder to Peter and Ben. A soft smile graces the woman’s lips as she gazes at the pair.

“I should get going now. After all that panic I think Ben and Peter are starving.”

“A growing boy should eat as much as he needs.”

“Mm-hm.” May turns back to Tony. “You sure changed my opinion on you. You seem like a decent person.”

“I’m honored.” May lets out a soft laugh at that.

“Thanks again.” May smiles at him one last time before turning to look at Peter. She calls out to them and walks over to them. Peter turns to smile at her brightly as May joins the pair. The three of them begin to walk away from Tony caught in their own bubble of time. 

Peter has a family that really cares for him.

Tony watches the family walk away. His heart seems to burn slightly and there’s a prick of tears in his eyes. A feeling Tony can’t describe threatens to swallow him as he watches Peter walk away.

Tony is about to turn away when he sees Peter stop and turn towards him. The boy’s eyes look around slightly through the still too big glasses. Peter spots him and a bright grin spreads out on the boy’s face and he waves to Tony. Tony, a little stunned, waves slightly back.

For once, Tony thinks that it’s going to be okay. 

Everything will end up right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hey! how was it? Feedback, critiszim, general comments, kudos are all welcome here and greatly appreciated! Sorry to have left you guys on a cliffhanger last chapter. I didn't even realize it was one. Hopefully this is somewhat satisfying to it. I'm excited for the next chapter though!
> 
> Also how do I write May and Ben. or children. How do they work?
> 
> But hey! good news! it's summer! more time to write yay!
> 
> I'm really happy to reach this point in the fic. It's kinda the first milestone in a way? I've introduced most of the main players of the fic and I feel like the stage has been set. I also have full intention to finish this fic(may take a loooonnng time) so even if there isn't an update for a month or two just know I will finish this fic.
> 
> Also shout out to the people who have left comments on every chapter and have supported this fic I love you all!: That one dude, Itsrebecca, Marvel_ly_strange, March, shadowfire! To name a few, i might have missed a few of you but thank you so much! Also fell behind on replying to comments so whoops.
> 
> By now, many of you probably know the drill, but the MCU timeline is trash. Any inaccuracies don't hesitate to comment!
> 
> Up next: Stane!


	7. The Machiavellian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahaha I like history. It's fun. 
> 
> Sorry about the late chapter! ouch.
> 
> Near the end of the chapter there is something akin to a panic attack, skip from "Yeah? I’ll believe it when I see it." to "Why her? Why now?"

_Tony is about to turn away when he sees Peter stop and turn towards him. The boy’s eyes look around slightly through the still too big glasses. Peter spots him and a bright grin spreads out on the boy’s face and he waves to Tony. Tony, a little stunned, waves slightly back._

_For once, Tony thinks that it’s going to be okay._

_Everything will end up right._

-

Tony sits in the plush leather of his plane. He’s on his way back to California after being in New York for a few days. He’s hesitant to leave. More than anything right now, he misses the tower and the compound. Peter was in New York. Tony had never expected to see the boy again but he’s so glad he did. The weird wizard doctor, whos just a doctor now, lives and works in new york.

Familiar faces keep popping up everywhere. People he never met until years later. Things that never happened happened. Tony can’t help but fear the course of the future. How much will change? How much longer will the information he has be useful? When will he be in the dark completely once again?

Questions plague his mind in an unrelenting pace. Thoughts fly at high speeds. The moment one thought ends another begins. Memories and images buzz around. He starts to lose himself as he delves further into his thoughts. 

Tony lets out a sigh and looks out the window. Fluffy clouds form blankets over the sky and the whiteness blinds him. Through patches of clouds, Tony can see the land below him. Not in great detail but he can still see it. It puts him at ease. He lets his thoughts continue but they become an afterthought as he watches the clouds.

A phone buzzing startles him from his thoughts.

Tony fumbles around for a moment as he looks for his phone. Vibrations rattles the table from where the phone is placed and the screen lights up. On it is the contact named “Obie”.

Tony’s face twists into a grimace and his eyebrows furrow. Immediately Tony feels like his entire day has been soured as he reaches to pick up the phone. It vibrates in his hand as he pulls it up to look at it while letting it buzz in his hand a few times. He waits until it’s about to go to voicemail before clicking accept. 

The interface changes and Tony swiftly brings it up to his ear. Tony lets himself fall into position and adopts the role Stane wishes him to play.

“Yellow.” Tony says to the mic. “You’ve reached, well, you know who I am.”

“Tony? Tony?” Stane says into the phone. His voice is scratchy and low quality. Tony grimances at the old technology. He really needs to make a better phone. 

“Heyyyyy, Obie.” Tony responds elongating the hey for what he thinks is far too long. 

Based on Stane’s silence, he thought so too. Stane sighs.

“Please, don’t tell me your drunk right now.” He sounds disappointed. Such a shame. 

Tony lets out a bark of laughter for the sole purpose of annoying Stane.

“Me? Drunk? Man, Obie. You’re absolutely _hilarious._!” Tony laughs out lacing his voice with glee. He can practically feel Stane glaring at the phone. He can hear Stane sigh again and Tony lets out a giggle. 

“Where the hell have you been?”

“At the Gala. Don’t you remember, you’re the one who made me do that.”

“I didn’t mean that. You’ve been ignoring my calls. The press is going nuts! You disappeared when you were supposed to leave, not even Hogan knew where you were.”

“What is it now? Some scandal? I’ve been good. I don’t know what it could be.”

“ _What is it now?!_ Tony, this is _serious_.”

“Isn’t always?” Tony readjusts his sitting in his chair.

“The arc reactor blew up. Someone leaked it.” _Ah, but Tony already knew that he was the one who did both those things in the first place._ “People are already gossiping about you, you were seen with a kid. You haven’t been or held any parties for a few days. The tabloids are going insane and the stock is dropping.”

There’s a beat of silence as Stane waits for Tony to process his words.

“Oh. That's rather unfortunate.”

“Tony!”

“That’s my name.”

“You know what this means!”

“Where am I supposed to be reading in between the lines here?”

Stane sighs loudly. 

“We should have never done that stupid Arc Reactor project. You were stupid enough to keep it.”

“The arc reactor? Isn't that like, basically free energy? I was under the impression free was good.”

“That thing runs the main factory! All of it. So, because it exploded-”

“Anyone hurt?” Tony interrupts as he stares at the landscape outside the window.

“Why is that the thing you ask after all this?”

“Because lawsuits are a pain, and I already knew about the reactor.”

“Well, you should know by now that weapons productions shut down in the main factory. You had to make the electrical system so complicated that no one can figure it out. It’s also off the electrical grid. If _you_ don’t do something I’m- _we_ are going to lose millions.” Stane pauses seemingly out of breath. Tony can hear his breath in short puffs of air. “If you knew why the hell did you silence your phone?”

“Think long and hard, Obie.”

Stane groans in disappointment.

“Right, our stock is going down. You better fix this. We may have other places but that place is where the big things are made.”

“Shouldn’t be too bad. I can probably fix that in a jiffy and make it even better.”

Stane sounds defeated slightly and very aggravated. 

“Potts is setting up a press conference. I expect you back soon.”

“I didn’t make myself a jet for nothing.” Tony jokes laughing slightly.

“See you Tony.” Stane says abruptly hanging up. 

Wow, he sounded mad. 

Tony puts down the phone onto the table in front of him. He moves to sit more normally in the table while pulling his laptop in front of him. The computer makes a slight thunk as it hits the table and Tony starts it up.

Tony lets out a giggle. Whether it’s from hysteria or humor, he can't tell and nor does he care.

-

Tony furrows deeply at his phone. The gentle vrum of the car rocks him slightly as he sits in the car. Happy’s currently driving in the front seat and Tony sits in the back lounging as much as one can while wearing a seatbelt. The silence is thick but Tony pays no mind as he stares at evidence unsure on how to go through with Stane. 

Stane has too many connections and too much power.

It would be hasty to deal with him in his current state. 

Tony can feel his frown deepen as he stares at the blue screen of his phone as Jarvis begins to pull of files. Most of them contain things about Stane

He misses smartphones. 

They were just.. Convenient. 

Tony’s hands find purchase i the leather seat and he grips onto it. His hand clenches and unclenches as he thinks. Tony’s shoulders remain tense and it feels like every muscle in his body is preparing for a fight that won’t come.

Tony lets out a sigh before slumping back in the seat of the car. His head hits the headrest with a light thud and he looks up at the roof of the car. He brings a hand up to cover his face as he lets out a groan of frustration. He leaves one eye covered as he tries to resume his posture before going back to look at the files he gathered from other phones about Stane.

Tony glances up to the front area to meet Happy’s eyes who’s (probably) looking at him through the rear view mirror. The two eyes meet and Happy glances away quickly to focus back on the road.

A single glance shows Tony that Happy’s worried. The man’s eyebrows are creased and his face is slightly more scrunched than usual.

“Something up Happy?” Tony asks with half his face covered by his hand. Happy briefly turns his head to make actual eye contact with him before turning back quickly to look at the road. Happy lets out a bitter sounding puff of laughter.

“I should be the one to ask that, boss.”

Now it’s Tony’s turn to let out a chuckle. The hand falls from his face to rest in his lap while he puts the phone down onto the black leather seat next to him. Next to him the world blurs and moves through the window of the car. 

“Ehh, not really anything.” Tony drawls out and shrugs before looking at the landscape outside the window. 

Golden grass wooshes past, or more correctly, they woosh past fields of golden grass as they make their way back into the city. Speed has always given Tony a sense of comfort. At least that hasn’t changed. Maybe it’s flying, he wishes he was doing that right now. The suit, the freedom, the everything the suit allowed him to be, was, for lack of a better term, a nice feeling. 

He wonders what Yinsen is doing right now. Tony hopes he’s okay. His thoughts drift to another young boy. The one in the winters of Tennessee. He wonders how the boy, Harley, is doing. He should be a little older than Peter at this point. Considering he didn’t meet the kid until he 2013. After the Avengers, after Loki, after New york. All after the nasty stuff. Things, he doesn't want to relive. 

Everyone is younger. The thought still makes Tony shiver slightly.

It’s only been a few days since he’s arrived in the past.

“-ss. Boss? Tony?” Happy’s voice breaks through his thoughts causing Tony to jump slightly.

“Huh?” 

Tony’s been spacing out. Whoops.

“Right, uh, did you ask something?” Tony asks a bit startled still.

“You okay?”

“Oh right, I’m fine, a-okay.”

“Boss.” His voice is flat. Tony looks at the mirror to see Happy’s eyebrows almost comically a straight line as his face radiates disappointment.

“Stupid company stuff. All that junk, including the arc reactor blowing up.”

“That big thing? Doesn't that power the main factory?” 

“Yeah, but we have more than one manufacturing area.” _Unfortunately._ SI being a big company means they have multiple areas of business. Being one of the leading

“Still, sounds like a nightmare.”

Tony lets out a chuckle.

“No kidding. Peps gotta lot to handle with that fiasco because someone leaked it. She called it a PR nightmare, but hey, isn’t everything I do a PR nightmare. Still can't believe she’s sticking with me after all that stress.” Tony laughs out a bittersweet laugh. Happy doesn't notice the sorrow smile that graces Tony’s face. The grip on the leather chair becomes tighter with his chest knotting itself. A slight buzz is faint in Tony’s ear as he speaks. 

“She’s worried, you know.”

“Pepper? Hell, she always is. Plus, that’s the second time you mentioned that.”

“She’s been saying that a lot about you in the past few days.”

“Well, I. For one thing…” Tony trials off unsure of what to say so he doesn't say anything.

“You’ve been a bit off recently. More than your usual self. Pepper and Rhodey are getting worried.”

“And you?” 

“Tony.”

“Right, sorry.” Tony glances out the window to see the fields have shifted to buildings that stand tall against the horizon. The road is no longer on the ground and is instead suspended by the expressways that traverse the city area.

Judging by his silence, since Tony isn’t looking or can see Happy’s face, Happy is waiting for his answer.

“It’s been well, how do I best explain this?” Tony shifts slightly in his seat. His knuckles turning white from his grip. “Complicated.” He finishes. The pounding in his head gets louder and increases in tempo.

“You can talk to us you know?”

“I-”

“Sire,” Jarvis voice cuts through the car. “A high speed vehicle is heading-”

_crunch_

A loud crash and the sound of screeching metal echoes throughout the car and Jarvis’ voice breaks into static.

Tony is lurched forward and to the side as something collides with the corner of the car and sends Tony, Happy, and the car tumbling. A startled yelp escapes Tony’s mouth as gravity fails for a moment until be tugged back harshly from his seatbelt. The car does another flip. His stomach heaves and he feels it rise as he’s sent sideways once again only to be pulled back from his seatbelt.

The car screeches and rolls to a stop with a heave.

It’s over quicker than he can think and he’s left in an almost perfectly intact car sitting upside down as he tries to process what had happened. Ringing courses through his ears but is dwarfed by the sound of his heart pounding. 

“Uh.” Tony says dumbly. The blood is rushing to his head right now and it isn’t very comfortable. 

The seatbelt is currently the only thing keeping him suspended to the ceiling. His glasses are skewed on his face and close to falling out. Somewhere in his cloudy brain he hears a muffled cry. Tony looks towards the front of the car to see Happy engulfed in the air bags. At least he’s okay.

Tony fumbles around searching for the seat belt buckle before clicking it to release. A bit of a mistake, he realizes, as he falls down the roof of the car with a thud. His glasses being knocked from his face. Next to him lies his phone, 

His eyes are brought to the window as he lies on the roof of his car. His head is pounding.

Something doesn't feel right. 

No, something, something isn’t right here.

A sense of dread fills Tony as he looks out the window. A truck sits on the highway a few feet from him on it’s side. 

Tony’s really glad that his car is outfitted with armor. Tony looks back and sees that it’s slightly crunched but not as much as the truck that collided with him.

Tony looks closer and sees a figure slumped over the steering wheel with blood dripping from their forehead. The truck itself, is not doubt totaled. The front part of looks like someone squished it making it a mangled piece of metal. 

If Tony didn’t take the armored car, something that small, not world threatening, could have killed him. 

What the hell?

His mind is fuzzy. Cotton fills his ears as Tony fumbles around searching for the button that held a briefcase Iron Man suit. With shaky hands he places the glasses back onto his face. He’s mostly unharmed, frazzled perhaps, but quite fine compared to what could have been.

Through his ringing ears he hears something with a semblance to a siren or a car alarm. The world sways slightly as he looks around. His vision blurs around the edges. His torso burns slightly where the seatbelt was taught around him.

Being safer was a better choice in the long run. The armored car wasn’t his usual flashy choice, but the safer one in the long run for sure. A choice Toyn was thankful that he listened to Jarvis about. 

He could have become a pancake. Tony fumbles around and hears a thunk, Happy has just unbuckled himself and fell onto the roof of the car. Tony’s hands meet his phone as he grabs it and pockets it. He fins the button he was looking for and a compartment emerges with a clicking noise. He reaches up and grabs the briefcase that was in the container and takes it out. Tony looks down at the briefcase and at his hands.

His hand is trembling.

Why?

Tony had almost died over a thousand times before, why is this one shaking him up so much?

He could have died. _Happy_ could have died.

If he decided a different car, who knows the outcome. If he died, Thanos would still attack and he wouldn’t be able to do anything but warn them.

If he did die, he would see everyone again.

_No_

It’s not worth it to condemn an entire universe to suffer the same fate.

_But he didn’t die._

_But, what if?_

Tony swallows bitterly. It feels like sand has filled his mouth. He coughs for a few seconds. Sweat oozes down his neck. His throat tightens with each breath. The smell of an acidic nature fills his nose. His head is cotton and his heart pounds in his ears.

Tony hears a clicking noise, a door opening. Happy stumbles out the vehicle. Tony scoots as gracefully as one can when scooting to the door opposite of the crushed truck and opens it. Still graceful, he crawls out the door with the briefcase and stands up.

He takes a few steps away from the crashed vehicles. Happy stands a few meters away from the crash to look at it. Tony’s eyes flicker to the crushed truck and his own. 

Smoke billows from the truck and he can smell gasoline.

The chance of a car catching on fire in a crash is less than one percent.

Tony looks down at the copious amount of gasoline that's puddled on the floor. The yellow liquid shining rainbows in the light. He looks to the truck’s window.

The driver is gone.

Something isn’t right here.

“Sire, I’ve scanned the-” Jarvis begins to say before Tony cuts him off.

Tony runs.

Adrenaline races through his veins as he’s ears pound with rushing blood. He grabs Happy's arm and pulls the man along with him as he runs as far as he can away from the car.

His car can survive a lot, the suit can survive a lot, but he isn’t so sure how well a human body would fare with an explosion. (That’s a lie, he _is_ a weapons developer after all.) 

Not even seconds later a deafening boom echoes from behind him. Tony is forced to the ground by the shock wave. The briefcase clatters to the ground as something pierces his back. Happy tumbles to the ground with him. A wave of hit rushes over his back scorching it. Light blinds his eyes for a moment and ringing fills his ears.

His head feels even worse than it did before.

On the sticky black asphalt of the road, Tony places a hand down to try and support his torso. He opens his eyes and shapes begin to blur. It almost feels like waves are rocking him right now. A raging heat warms his back. Something sticky is running down his back.

Tony places both hands on the ground to push himself off. Little pieces of rocks stick to his sweaty hands. His elbows tremble from the force. The glasses on his face are skewed again and he reaches up to adjust them before sitting up.

Tony is able to stand despite the angry protests from his body. He stands up disoriented and dizzy and nearly trips while standing still. He turns his head to look at the raging inferno that was his car and the truck. He watches the remaining pieces of both the car and truck shoot up into flames. His mouth and ears feel like they’re full of cotton. 

A hand touches his shoulder and shakes him slightly.

“ Tony? Hey? You there?” Happy asks him, each word accompanied by being shaken.

“Happy?”

“You alright? You’re staring at the burning car.”

“Right, ah, jeez.” Tony stumbles out with his tongue barely able to form words. “Just that’s kinda off.”

“Off? The car is burning.” Happy raises an eyebrow at him. “And it’s on fire.” Happy says in a flat voice.

Tony’s mouth is dry and his throat feels tight.

“Yeah, definitely, but that’s quite… odd.” Tony coughs out slightly. The words scratch against his throat and he can’t tear his eyes off the blazing. Smoke fills his nostrils as he tries to breathe. The smog is rancid and makes his face scrunch up. Sweat drips down his neck slowly. 

“At least you’re a billionaire, and that wasn’t one of the expensive cars.”

“Actually.” Tony pauses taking his eyes off of the inferno to look at Happy for a moment. “The modifications I made on that one were very costly.”

Happy looks at him weirdly.

“Is that why you chose this one?”

“I was paranoid. Better safe than sorry.” Tony Lets out a laugh as he looks at the fire that rages meters away from them. 

“A car crash can happen anytime, though.”

“Cars, don’t explode like that.” Tony says, “that, I’m quite certain, and if I am right, that was no ordinary car fire.” 

“You’re saying?” Happy’s eyes narrow in disbelief as the thought enters his head.

Tony pauses while he watches the flames lick at the debris. Years of weapon making doesn’t disappear, not even in ten years. All the ways that one could make something kill another human _better_ is ingrained in his mind. He doesn’t like it, but as a weapons developer he knew what that was. He knows how cars explode and catch on fire, he knows how physics and things interact, but what happened wasn’t that. 

“That was a bomb.”

-

The paramedics had arrived a few minutes later. While Tony had no major injuries, his hands were still pretty roughed up and the issue of shrapnel piercing his back was a thing. It wasn’t a fun moment when he realized his back was bleeding, by shrapnel no less. He also had a concussion but that wasn’t going to stop him. 

The conclusion was that he was in shock. Tony figures he can use that to his advantage somehow. 

Happy made it out relatively unscathed, but Tony gave him a week off anyway for being involved in this fiasco.

The more important thing is that he was certain that Stane had to be involved in it. The question of why the bomb didn’t go off right away was one that popped up. His current theory is the other missing driver. The car didn’t go off until the other driver had disappeared. The truck that had crashed into his was also stolen so that made things much more complicated in linking it back to Stane. 

Sure, it may have not been Stane, but with the fact that an assassiation attempt was to occur a few days ago on him but had been foiled, he wasn’t going to take that chance. Tony has multiple enemies but the coincidences seem to sweat with everything that’s been going on. Doesn’t help that Tony’s been pissing Stane off on purpose lately.

Even with his technological advantages, Tony is quite limited on what he can and can’t do. Some areas he had neglected and sorely regrets it as now he can’t completely access Stanes phones without being there physically. He’ll have to find a different way to snoop around.

Pepper, was a problem of her own. She nearly killed him, in a more mental way. He loves her, so so much, but it still hurts him so much to be near her. She had told him to take a few days off due to his injuries, while he should have taken off more he didn’t tell her about the concussion. Pepper had yelled at him a bit for being an idiot, to be safer and how she would include this in the press conference they were holding for the arc reactor explosion. It makes Tony smile in ways that he can't explain. It hurts him but it also saves him. A double edged sword. At times like these, he wishes to see his Pepper again.

The few days off were spent researching Stane, catching up with technology, making the cars better, and playing with his bots. With of course, a truckload of caffeine.

Stane had called multiple times. Not once did Tony answer. He doesn't feel like he could talk with the man anyway.

All to soon, in his hazy mind, the days had passed all too quickly. The sun rose and set and night and day went through their cycles. His vacation was over and it was time to head to SI headquarters.

-

Tony’s leather shoes meet the pavement of the floor with a small tap as he steps out of the car. He shouldn’t be driving, but that’s why he has Jarvis for. (and many other reasons.) He adjusts his sunglasses to lessen the glare from the sun. His head still hurts slightly. He plays a hand on the metal frame of the door and closes it with a click.

The sun shines brightly today. White clouds dot the sky and rays of light bake the ground below. Everything seems too vibrant today. There’s no breeze that falls over him. It’s still all still and static. Beautiful in the moment, but all to quiet. Other than the people walking in and out of the building in front of him, it feels off.

The building that looms above him made from glass and concrete is the current HQ of SI. 

Tony runs a hand through his hair and pats out a few wrinkles. He makes sure his appearance is set before walking forward. Someone else will take care of the car. 

Right now all he’s focused on is Stane.  
His mind buzzes.

Tony walks down the concrete path. The sun is merciless beaming down on him. Other days he would find it pleasant but not today. The white light making everything seem too artificial. He makes it to the entrance with the glossy glass doors. He places a hand against it to push it open.

The metal is cool against his hands.

He pushes it open and walks in. People walk in and about the reception area. Being the lead weapons company it’s always populated.

A few eyes fall on him as he walks through the lobby. The uncomfortable feeling of being watched settles in. Tony forces his face to fall flat. He makes his body begin to relax despite how tense it is. He resists the urge to clench his fist and tries to portray confidence. Step after step through the lobby.

Even if it’s the opposite of how he feels.

“Mr. Stark!” a voice calls out to him from behind. Head turn to look at Tony. Tony turns to see a receptionist calling him over. Tony pulls his lips into a smile. “Welcome back. We’re glad you’re okay. Everyone was worried.”

“Thankyou,” Tony smiles pleasantly. His cheeks are starting to hurt. His head is beginning to pound with pain. “Could you alert Miss Potts that I’ve returned?”

“Of course, I was just about to let you know that she’ll be in her office.” their eyes flit to their computer. “Oh, and Mr. Stane wants to see you by the way, he’ll be in your office. 

“Oh, uh.” Tony’s throat clenches and he feels his shoulders tense. He hasn’t quite figured out what to do with Stane just yet. “Great, tell him I’ll be there in a bit.” Tony’s smile turns strained.

The receptionist nods.

His cheeks are starting to hurt again so Tony decides it’s time to make his way to the elevators.

-

The elevator dings open with a ding.

Tony steps out onto the office floor. His hands are trembling slightly and sweat begins to pool at the back of his neck. A slight buzz fills his mind. 

_You’ve faced him before. You’ve beaten him. He doesn’t even have the iron monger suit? Why are you so afraid?_

Tony runs his fingers over his hands. Feeling each tendon and muscle move as he does so. The lack of scars unnerves him. He’s used to aches and pains in his bones. The irritation of injuries that never healed properly. Walking weirdly because of one mission. It’s all gone. Every injury he ever had on a mission, heroing, in the last ten years, is gone. 

The scars he’s come to know. The torn muscle. The hole in his chest.

All gone.

He’s left in a civilian body. One that doesn't know pains and aches like his old, but his brain does.

It’s odd to not have to struggle to breathe. He doesn’t have to work with overworked and damaged muscles. The creakiness in his joints are gone. His hairline is no longer speckled with grey. His bones no longer ache. He’s young again. He feels like a newborn. 

He’s thankful for all the positives but being in a body that’s his, but also not his makes his skin crawl.

It’s his, but also not his.

Tony shakes his head slightly trying to dispel the thoughts. As he does that he nearly smacks his face into the door of his office. Tony stops in front of it. The large door looms over him. A once pleasant looking door fills him with shudders. 

Tony takes a deep breath to calm his racing pulse and mold his face into one of calmness.

“Tony!” A voice thunders from behind him. It sounds jovial but the owner of said voice sends chills down his spine.

Stane is nothing compared to Thanos.

Nothing.

Why is he so afraid still?

Tony takes a breath mentally preparing himself for the encounter. He turns with a broad smile plastered to his face. His hands are starting to shake so Tony shoves them into his pockets in tight fists. Stane is walking towards him and Tony resists the urge to flee despite every warning

“Obie!” Tony smiles with the fake grin stuck to his face. “Good to see you.” _lies_

“Tony, my boy, so glad you’re alright.” Stane pauses to look at him and places a hand on Tony’s shoulder. “I was so worried!” Stane nearly laughs out.

The hand on his shoulder is heavy. Tony wonders why Stane does that so often. The alarm bells in his head begin to rage loudly.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Mostly. No need to worry.” Tony chuckles at the end of his sentence. “I’m glad I decided to choose the armored car. Who knows what would have happened? I might have died.”

They both go silent and Tony looks at Stane in the eyes. Stane’s eyes narrow at Tony.

“I didn’t though, so you have a reason to be glad right?”

Another pause. Stane’s face goes blank for a second before shifting again to a more cheerful demeanor.

“Well what matters is that you’re alright!” Stane grips Tony’s shoulder more tightly and turns to pull him into a one armed hug. Tony nearly blanches at the contact and forces himself not to grimace. Every instinct is telling him to shove Stane away. Stane turns the both of them so they face the office. “Let’s talk in your office, best not to have prying ears.”

“Sounds great.” Tony hopes Stane doesn't notice the tremble in his voice.

Stane leads him to the doors and pushes it open. Stane’s arm is an unwelcome presence and once again, Tony fights the urge to punch the man. They enter the office and then does Stane release him from his grip. Immediately Tony takes a few steps back towards the desk in an effort to put some space between him and Stane. While Stane stays closer to the doors.

Tony takes a moment to sniff the air and he smells grease. He looks around trying to find the source of the smell. The sun is cascading into the room with white light. The dark shadows contrast greatly with the direct sun that comes from the window. Despite the sunlight the room remains dim in areas where the shadows hit the ground. None of the lights in the office are on right now. 

Tony stands closer to the back of the office towards the desk with Stane standing closer to the door. Half of Stane’s face is blanketed in dark shadows that contrast greatly with the side wrapped in the sun’s light. The air feels static and the whiteness does no favors to indicate it otherwise. A small smile is adorned on Stane’s face.

In the light the man’s smile seems malicious.

“I went out for some food, I’m quite sure it’s your favorite.” Stane walks over to the desk where Tony stands. Tony looks behind him to see a bag of fast food takeout. “I figured you might want some food after the ordeal.”

Tony maintains a blank expression as Stane walks over to grab the food and hand him the greasy bag. Tony accepts the bag and holds it. 

“Thanks, St- Obie.” Tony corrects himself and Stane’s eye’s look at him for a moment but seems to dismiss the thought and smiles again.

“No problem, but, let’s talk.” Stane walks away from Tony. Tony lets out a relieved breath once the man has moved away. “

“About what?” Tony moves to sit on the desk and the paper bag rests on his lap.

Stane looks at him.

“The Arc Reactor. The ridiculous idea your father made to appease the hippies that you decided to continue.”

“Oh, that. Isn’t Pepper dealing with that? She’s setting up a press conference for tomorrow, isn’t she?”

“She is, but this is why we need to talk about it.”

“Alright.” Tony takes a moment to open the bag. It crinkles open and the smell of grease permeates the air. A burger wrapped in foil sits inside the bag. “You didn’t get one for yourself?”

“No, no I did.” Stane says while Tony takes it out of the bag. “I just ate it before you arrived, since you were late.”

“Kay, so what about the press conference?”

“It’s more than that, but does include the press conference.” Stane says while the shadows are cast across his face. Tony takes this as a chance to open the burger making as much noise as he can with the foil. “I know we had a talk about this a few days ago, but your behavior has been less than professional.”

“How so?” Tony asks and sniffs the hamburger. It doesn't look like it’s been tampered with but he doesn’t want to chance it so he just holds the warm burger in his hand. Tony feels his pulse pounding in his ears. It’s getting hard to make out what Stane is saying.

 

“Tony, self reflection is important you should know. You’re the figurehead of the company. Everything you do is reflected upon the company. With the way you’re acting, I’m afraid of the consequences.” Stane’s face is blank with veiled irritation.

Stane pauses to look at Tony who just stares back at him. 

It’s hard to breathe.

“I care for you Tony. So I say this because I care. It’s time you’ve grown up. You’ve been a child for far too long. You can't just do things without telling anyone. When will you learn that all you are is an ungrateful spoiled-.” Stane pauses catching his slip. Tony continues to stare at him. Stane continues his tirade, although a bit calmer. “You’ve ignored all my calls, took days off without notice, the car crash yesterday, canceling a multimillion dollar deal for what? Everything you do reflects upon us, if you keep doing what you’re doing you’ll run the company into the ground.”

Alarm bells ring loudly in his head. Cotton fills his ears as sweat drips down his neck.

Tony remains his blank stance despite the growing tension in his body.

“Funny, I was under the impression it was otherwise.” 

“Tony.” Stane grits out irritated. His face is turning red.

Tony lets the burger fall from his hands and to the ground. 

Stane’s eyes follow it and then go back to Tony. Tony keeps his face blank. Tony tries to stop his mouth from speaking and fights the urge to call Stane out. This isn’t the place. He shouldn’t speak. 

“So, when the next time you’re going to try and kill me?” Tony asks flatly as it was the most normal thing in the world to ask.

_It slips out anyway._

Stane freezes. Tony nearly slaps a hand over his mouth but he doesn’t he just stares at Stane with impassive eyes.

Why did he do that?

Inside his brain he’s freaking out. The suit can get here in about a minute from where it’s stationed. If Stane has a gun or backup anywhere things could get deadly. His ears buzz and his thoughts fly, barely he’s able to maintain his composure. Jarvis is already recording.

The room seems to change instantly. The air is thicker and tension rises. Stane’s eyes narrow darkly and the shadows cast on his face scream danger. Every muscle in Tony’s body is raring for a fight.

“Pardon?” He asks very slowly. His eyes are glaring at him and searching for an answer.

“You think I didn’t know?” Tony asks. Might as well go with it.

“Tony I don’t appreciate this behavior.”

“Well you shouldn’t. I don’t appreciate the fact that you’ve tried to kill me, Stane.” He hisses out stane like it’s venom while glaring at him. Tony remains perched on the desk and the two are stuck in a staring contest.

“Why on earth would I do that Tony?”

“Why not? Who needs a reason?” Tony shrugs nonchalantly. Adrenaline pounds through his veins.

“Tony.”

“Well, I dunno. Maybe you want the company. The one that I _own._ ” He points to himself and slips off the desk. “The one that run by an _ungrateful brat_ /.” 

“Where are you getting this?” Stane begins to walk forward and Tony freezes. His voice is laced with concern. One that Tony knows is false.

His muscles are paralyzed as the man walks towards Tony. Tony’s body isn’t responding to what he wants. His arms feel like stone.

“Stay.” Tony forces out of his mouth. He raises a hand. He’s surprised it’s not trembling. “Right there. No closer.”

Stane, surprisingly, stops. 

“Tony, please, you know I wouldn’t”

“Drop the act, _Stane._ I’m not oblivious and I’m not a child.” Tony lets the hand fall to his side in a clenched fist.

“You act like one.” Stane eyes are glaring at him. He’s doing little to prove he’s not what he is. Tony won’t fall for it this time.

“Stane.” He didn’t intend to call out Stane this way, but it’s already happening.

“I don’t know who gave you this idea, but Tony listen-” 

“Afghanistan? The ten rings? Does that read a bell? You paying them to kidnap me?”

“Is this why you didn’t go? You’re being paranoid!” Stane's voice gets louder with each word to the point he’s nearly roaring. The man’s face is red and it looks like he’s about to pop a blood vessel. 

“I’m not an idiot Stane. Don’t underestimate me. I know what you’ve been selling weapons under the table.”

“Tony. You’re out of your mind, you need to see someone about this!”

Tony seethes red and rage takes over.

“I’m perfectly _stable of mind to talk with you_. The car crash was also you? Wasn’t it?”

“You’re being paranoid for no reason. The car crash was an accident! The military would have protected you!”

“From what? The weapons that you sold!”

“Tony, we’re a company, a weapons company.”

“Yeah? So? Am I not subject to morals, Stane?”

“You’re being soft!”

“Me? We’re talking about human lives! I don’t want to be responsible for even more deaths now!”

“How else do we make a profit? That’s what they” Stane roars at Tony. He starts to come closer to Tony.

“Leave.” Tony Say eerily calm. His heartbeats pounds deafeningly in his ears. Adrenaline races through his veins and he feels his legs threatened to tremble. He should have just stayed home. He should have went to Pepper instead not Stane. He should have just-

He doesn’t want to deal with Stane anymore.

“What?” Stane freezes. Still seething but baffled. He stares at Tony as if not comprehending the one word Tony said.

“Leave. Now.” Tony raises a hand with a slight tremor. One Stane doesn’t notice, and points to the door. “I’m done with your shit. You never cared did you? All you ever wanted was SI? So guess what, you’re fired. As CEO, and _owner_ , hereby effective _now_.” 

“You can’t do that!” Stane roars. He moves closer to Tony. In any other time, Tony would be laughing at how steam is almost coming out of his ears. The man’s face is bloated red from rage and his posture screams danger to Tony. 

He stands his ground.

“I can and did.” 

_This is stupid._

“This is a mistake! You can’t!” Stane screams at him nearly in his face. “I’ve worked so hard at this company! I didn't waste my time here for the company to be given to a brat! ”

He’s so close that the spit flung from Stane’s mouth nearly hits him.

“You’re just a naive brat who knows nothing of the real world! You party all day and do absolutely nothing! If I let you continue you would destroy the company!”

Stane is less than a foot away.

All Tony can see is red. 

He doesn't think when his hand finds his watch and pulls. He can't hear the clicking and whirring through the cotton in his ears. He can feel the glove forming on his arm.

Tony lifts his arm as stane and points the repulsor at him.

Stane stops and freezes and looks at it.

The repulsor whirrs at it charges. The blue gold lights up the room. Light reflects off the red and gold shiny paint covering the walls. 

The fear in Stane’s eyes sends satisfaction down his spine. A twisted sense of joy sets in. Tony’s face is twisted into a grimace and Stane’s face turns from shock into anger. 

Tony doesn't’ like that feeling.

“Leave.” Tony grits out. 

Stane’s eyes flicker from the glove to Tony. The fear is still present beneath the rage.

“You’re making a mistake.” Stane pauses backing away. Fear is starting to take over Stane’s demeanor. “A big one.”

“Yeah? I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Stane walks away quickly. His footfalls echoing loudly in the office. The opening of the door and then it being slammed.

Stane is gone.

Tony collapses to the floor on his knees breathing heavily.

Everything that was building up during the event is unleashed. Tears start to pour out of his eyes and Tony sobs. His legs refuse to work with him and his hands tremble. He clutches his stomach and folds over himself. He tries to breathe and fails. A weight begins to choke his throat. Each breath is cut off with a sob. His mouth goes dry and feels like it’s filled with sand

Ugly tears cascade from his eyes as he cries. Every emotion he’s held back rears its head for one disaster of an emotion. The world flickers in and out of existence as he stays huddled on the floor. Buzzing fills his ears accented with his pounding heartbeat.

He tries to breathe. No breath is enough for his lungs who refuse to take in air. Too many emotions crash over him in waves in a crescendo.

His mind is muddled as he tries to calm himself into coherent thinking. Nothing makes any sense right now because of Stane-

Wait.

Stane.

_Shit._

“Jarvis-.” Tony tries to speak and is cut off with a choke. Speaking feels like someone’s grinding rocks against his vocal cord. “Stane. He’s.” Tony isn’t able to speak. His voice is ragged and awful sounding. If his voice was a sound, it would be nails on a chalkboard.

The sound of a door opening startles him. Fear ices his veins as he turns to look at the entrant.

“Mr. Stark?” Pepper’s voice sounds throughout the room. Her high heels click along the floor. A gasp. She must have spotted Tony huddled on the floor looking like a mess.

_Why her? Why now?_

-

_Interlude (2018 pre-Rhodes’ death):_

The air is brisk and frigid. The sun bleeds across the horizon as it sets creating a golden spot in a sea of blues and purple. Dappled clouds of pink and blue dot the sky. A breeze flutters by slowly chilling the air. Leaves rustle in the wind and cicadas sing in the dark. The air is fresh and unlike a city’s air.

It’s peaceful.

Serene.

Calm.

It really shouldn’t be. 

Tony steps out onto the roof of the compound breathing in the air with a deep breath. He pads across the concrete rooftop softly. His trainers making dull thunks against it with each step.

The wind whistles by making his hair ruffle again. His jacket sways slightly in the breeze.

He takes a moment to breathe.

He’s just gotten back from being stranded in space. From nearly dying to reunite with Pepper and then finding out his best friend Happy was killed. Having to tell May Parker that her son was gone. The worst was telling the world what had happened, and what they lost. 

What does he do?

What can he do?

The aftermath of the snap was ugly. Cars crashed and ran off roads. Planes fell from the sky. Terror spread through the city like it was a disease. Uncertainty poisoned the people of the world as they waited for an explanation. Stability was destroyed and in its place stood anarchy.

The sky had seemed to fall that day.

Happy was killed in a car crash where one of the drivers was dusted.

Steve and the others had gone out to Kill Thanos and somehow reverse the shitshow that occurred. Tony at that time was too weak to go, not that he would though. 

It was a mistake to say the least.

They had come back a few days ago with a dead body in tow. Not Thanos’ body, but Clint. Killed by a projectile being flung at his face. His neck didn’t stand a chance and snapped on impact. Natasha hadn’t gone on the mission. She had stayed behind to try and fix what was left of a broken world. Perhaps, it was better that she did.

Tony lets out a sigh and looks at the sky line until his eyes catch a figure on the rooftop.

Natasha sits curled up at the edge of the building. Her bleached hair swaying slightly in the wind. Hints of red poke out from her roots. She wears plain black clothes. She’s facing away from Tony and looking at the sunset. 

Tony feels like he’s intruding on a moment. Tony turns to leave.

“Tony,” Natasha croaks out. Her voice sounds hoarse. “I know you’re there.”

Tony lets out a small laugh.

“How’d you know?”

“I’m a spy remember?” Natasha goes silent and her head pivots towards him. “You just going to stand there?” A strained smile graces her lips. There’s a slump in her shoulders. Her eyebrows are creased and black circles hang underneath her eyes. One hand unwraps itself from around her legs to pat the concrete next to her. There’s no energy put into the movement.

Tony takes her invitation and moves to sit next to her. Tony lets his legs dangle from the roof while Natasha sits next to him curled up in a ball. Silence falls upon them as they both look into the bleeding sunset.

“How are you doing?” Tony dares to ask breaking the veil of silence.

“Me?” Natasha lets out a puff of laughter. “I… Not great. Just needed a moment to think and to be alone.”

“I can go if you want me to.”

“No no.” Natasha says with a little more life than her previous words. “It’s, no, thank you for being here right now. It’s just dangerous to be alone.”

“Yeah, I understand the feeling.” Tony agrees and looks away back to the sunset. “That was a stupid plan.”

“It was.” Natasha agrees before curling up tighter into her ball. Her face remains blank. “I should have gone with them, Maybe then. Clint wouldn’t have-” Her voice cuts off with a crack as emotion starts to bleed into her voice.

“You don’t know that do you?” Tony begins. “Besides, might as well focus on earth for the time being. That space woman, Danvers, told us there hasn’t been much of anything about Thanos’ activity.

Tony glances over at Natasha. Her face is twisted. Her shoulders are tight with tension.

“I should have been there.”

“Maybe, it’s best it happened that way Natasha. We can’t dwell on the what ifs and shoulds.”

“You’re a hypocrite, you know that?” She says flatly but with humor in her voice. Tony feels a smile tug at his lips.

“Yeah, but either way, you’re gonna have guilt. I think it’s best you didn’t see him die in front of your eyes. If it was Rhodey, or anyone really, I don’t know what I’d do. If you were there…” He pauses. “It doesn’t matter anyway, it’s Thanos’s fault.”

“Do you really believe that?” 

Tony turns to look at her again. She’s looking off into the distance and here eyes seem lifeless. Her arms remain wrapped around herself tightly. Tony gives her a bitter smile.

“No.”

Natasha lets out a hum in response.

“I’m going on the next one.” her voice is a whisper. It sounds rusty from not being used. “I have to this time.”

“That’s a dumb idea, Nat.”

“It may be dumb, but what else can we do,Tony?”

Tony looks away from Natasha and back to the sky.

“I don’t know. This isn’t it though.”

They both go silent. The sky begins to darken as it sinks in the sky. Wind flutters past them making the leaves rustle.

“It’s all we have right now. What more could we lose?” Natasha says softly as if trying to convince herself.

“There’s always something to lose.”

“Right again.” Natasha sighs. “I know it’s irrational. My minds telling me I have too. If I don’t I feel like I’d be disrespecting him and what he fought for. He died for this.”

“Natasha, it’s okay to rest. He wanted you to be happy.”

“Like you wouldn’t do the same. Tony, I need to do this.”

“I know, it’s just… I understand. If Rhodey ever… nevermind. Just, please be careful.”

“Thankyou.” Natasha says to him without taking her eyes off the sun. Her shoulders seem lighter. She doesn’t seem like talking anymore.

So Tony sits. He doesn't cry, nor does he mourn. He just sits and lets his mind be clear.

A soft silence wraps around them as the sun retreats over the horizon. As the sky fates to night and the blinding streaks of light shrivel. They sit as the question of “what if” looms over them.

Fear may be present, but at least they can allow themselves a moment of peace.

The sun had long set and the stars shine brightly in the sea of murky violet before they leave the rooftop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey! thanks for reading. Still can't believe people are kudosing this fic despite me not updating for like 3 months lmao.
> 
> I'll be honest I don't quite like this chapter and I think it ends up being quite,,, awkward as I kept rewriting it. I don't think this is my best chapter but hopefully the next one is better? Next chapter should be free of that because I have cohesive outline for that already and it was a scene planned from the start! Thanks for sticking with me guys :)
> 
> Stane isn't killed here because 1, Tony isn't in the best of mind right now, 2, I can't write deaths(plus Tony can't kill him without consequences) and 3, I have plans for Stane in later chapters. So expect him to pop up again(wink wink, nudge nudge) Stane also has connections and Tony lacks the tech. It's a wonder how much technology has grown over ten years. I also forgot, what was 2008 like again for technology. That's like ten years ago and I don't really remember. Tony's also only been in the past for about 2-3 weeks give or take. 
> 
> I didn't realize I never mentioned Harley. The MCU has too many characters lmao, but he'll also be showing up in later chapters as a kid, though only a few years younger. 
> 
> Out of curiosity, how did most of you find this fic? Off of Ao3 or recs?
> 
> Anyway, anything weird, awkward and general feedback don't hesitate to comment! Kudos give me life(also tysmmmm for like that many hecc.) Mcu timeline is trash so any inaccuracies let me know.
> 
> Up Next: S.H.I.E.L.D


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